Failings and Misunderstandings
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: In hindsight, Team Seven were lucky to have been unjustly kicked out of the Chunin exams when they had. The rest of the Chunin hopefuls, including one very unfortunate Hinata Hyuga, weren't so lucky. NaruHina, SasuSaku.
1. Chapter 1

**This chapter is brought to you by Razamataz22 and Kakarot Son**

**Disclaimer: Team Dragon Star does not own Naruto**

**...**

Naruto screwed up his face as he stared at the questions in front of him; he might as well have been reading text from a different language. These questions were nothing like the ones he had had to answer in the academy, and even a majority of those he had gotten incorrect. As the rules had been explained earlier, getting a zero on this test would result in his entire team failing. If he cheated and got caught that would be a deduction of two points and with that in mind alongside the fact that he hardly knew any way to start any of the questions that would put him into the negatives, something that Sakura would then scold him for the rest of his life.

All around him he could hear the tapping of pencils on paper, their constant rhythm driving him mildly insane at his own lack of ability to answer a single question. Hinata had offered Naruto the opportunity to look off of her paper, but Naruto had nearly had his head skewered as a result when a kunai had shot passed and stabbed the test that another one of the Genin behind him had been writing on. He had managed to give Hinata a bullshit excuse saying that he was too awesome to need to cheat, but he was soon regretting it as more and more people around him got caught for cheating. He'd managed to put on a bit of bravado for Hinata by saying that he didn't want Hinata to get punished for making her work so easy to be copied off. If anything came out of this test it was that he now knew he was too stubborn for his own good.

"Number 32, fail," shouted one of the examiners, making Naruto's eyes go wide. Thirty-two... that had been the number he'd been given. He was about to shout out in rage and say that he hadn't cheated at all when he remembered how several other Genin had been dealt with when they had done something similar.

"Naruto-kun," said Hinata softly, never once having seen her crush cheat. Looking around, she tried to spot the Chūnin that had been the one to call Naruto out, but it was difficult to pick which of the several higher ranking shinobi had been the ones to do it.

The proctor of the exam, Morino Ibiki, had been watching all of the Genin in front of him like a hawk as well as noting when a proctor made note of when one of the young ninja were cheating too obviously. For the orange clad Genin, not once had he seen the blond even try to cheat. There was a casual look from side to side, but that was more common as to a thinking pose, much how like some people chewed on their pen when they were brainstorming. Unlike Hinata though, he knew exactly which Chūnin had been the one to call the blond out and undoubtedly, he would be questioning their reason as to why later. However, the rules were his rules and he would not show weakness by overriding one of his subordinates decision. While it would show that he was the dominant force in the room, giving leniency to a Konoha rookie team would be like saying that just because they were the youngest group meant that they could be given a second chance.

"You heard him," said Ibiki, not letting any emotions form upon his face. "Teammates of his are disqualified as well." Slowly, Sasuke and Sakura got up from their seats as Naruto got up from his, his usual loud demeanour all but vanished.

"Hey Hinata, you better become a Chūnin, for both of us," said Naruto with a weak smile as he walked past, causing the Hyūga heiress to blush as she found herself filled with newfound confidence. The blonde could feel the eyes of his teammates drilling into his back but couldn't muster up the courage to turn around and look them in the eye.

Sakura, who had been too busy doing the test without having to cheat at all, was fuming at her teammate. That being said, she didn't voice it out at the moment, part of her was simply muttering how it had just been unfortunate that their first test would be a written exam and in the end it was unavoidable that Naruto would need to resolve to cheating. As the door closed behind them, all of the Genin returned to the work at hand, a number of the Konoha rookies with their spirits up at the possibility of being graduated before the best in their class.

Once they had reached outside, Naruto ran his fingers through his hair as his eyes adjusted to the sunshine. Looking around he could see that there were several other groups of ninja who were fuming at one of their teammates for having screwed up. One team seemed to have automatically patched things up and were laughing as if it was a running gag between the three of them. While he hoped something like that would be similar for Team Seven, when he turned around to see the fury in Sakura's eyes he knew it was but a fleeting hope.

"Naruto!" shouted Sakura as she raised her fist up to strike the blond, but before she could follow through her wrist was grabbed by Sasuke.

"Calm down Sakura," he said sternly, the pink-haired girl quickly obeying his words. While he was irritated by the fact that he would have to wait until the next lot of exams to get promoted, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was something darker going on here.

"Thanks Sasuke," said Naruto, thankful that he wasn't nursing a swollen head right about now.

"Naruto," said Sakura, anger still present within her voice. "What did you do to get caught?"

"I didn't cheat," said Naruto which caused both Sasuke and Sakura to look at him in disbelief.

"But you had to cheat five times in order to get evicted from the exam, don't lie to us Naruto," warned Sakura as she lifted her fist to eye level.

"Sasuke," said Naruto, knowing that he would get a better response out of the last Uchiha rather than Sakura for the question he was about to ask. "If you cheated and in doing so got an answer, what would be the first thing you'd do?"

"Write it down?" asked Sasuke in response, appearing unsure if this was the right answer to give. Instead of Naruto answering in words, however, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to his two teammates. As they took it they automatically recognised it as the exam they had just been taking, somehow Naruto must have been able to sneak the test out without anybody having noticed. Unlike the sheets they had been working on however, this piece of paper was devoid of all writing except for where Naruto had put his name in the top right hand corner. "I see," muttered Sasuke as he became deep in thought.

"What do you see Sasuke? All this means is that Naruto is a baka," accused Sakura.

"If you cannot see what is written in front of you then you are the idiot here," said Sasuke, which caused Sakura to take a step back.

Sakura couldn't remember the last time anybody had called her an idiot, if she had ever been called one before. Clearly Sasuke had seen something within the paper that she had not and once more her eyes studied the document in front of her. It took several seconds before her eyes went wide as she realised what Sasuke had meant. "You didn't cheat at all?" asked Sakura, pretty sure she already knew the answer. It seemed so simple now, as Sasuke had said the first thing one would do when they get an answer would be to write it down, whether or not the answer was formed from pure genius or cheating didn't matter, the result would always be the same.

"I had the option to once, but I chose not to because I didn't want to get us disqualified," admitted Naruto. "Somehow though I still manage to screw up."

"Maybe you had pranked one of those Chūnin a long time ago and this was their way of getting revenge," offered Sakura trying to think of a solution. Even as she said it though she realised just how ridiculous that sounded; even if a ninja had been pranked by Naruto, causing an entire team to fail seemed like such overkill for petty revenge. Plus for as long as she'd been on the team with the blond, she couldn't once recall him having done anything to anger anybody of higher rank so she doubted a Chūnin would wait for this day of all days to get back at Naruto.

"Maybe," said Naruto as he looked upwards towards the clouds before muttering a string of words incoherently. Sasuke said nothing but he had reacted to the tone in Naruto's voice. The last Uchiha in Konoha could tell that it had nothing to do with a prank that Naruto had pulled but it did have something to do with the Uzumaki, the blond's tone having given it away. He didn't want to pester Naruto on the subject; however, he had never seen his teammate in such a quiet mood before and while it was a welcome reprieve for his ears it also was unnerving.

"So what now?" asked Sakura, praying that somehow Ino didn't manage to make it through the entire exam to get promoted before her.

"Find Kakashi, tell him we failed and then train to be able to kick ass in the next exams," said Naruto, his usual fire seeming to be reignited instantly.

"Sounds like a plan," said Sasuke with a smirk, somewhat relieved that Naruto was seemingly back to normal.

"Do you even know where Kakashi is?" asked Sakura.

"Nah, but last one to find him has to buy the rest of the team lunch!" said Naruto with a cheeky grin before dashing off, intent on making the others buy his food for today.

"Naruto you cheater!" shouted an outraged Sakura, although she couldn't somehow feel the irony of calling Naruto a cheater now of all times, even if he did get an unfair head start. Before she could leap off to give chase, Sasuke's hand landed on her shoulder, holding her in place.

"Sakura, we need to talk," said Sasuke, Sakura merely nodding in response. Her heart started to flutter, rarely had Sasuke wanted to talk to her but let alone in a private setting, this was like a dream come true. "It's about Naruto." And just like that the dream shattered but as she snapped back to reality she realised that this was probably an important discussion to talk about.

"What about him?" asked Sakura.

"He knows why that Chūnin failed him and to an extent failed us, I could tell by his voice," explained Sasuke. "Something doesn't seem right and I want to get to the bottom of this."

"Couldn't we just ask Naruto?" asked Sakura.

"If he wanted to tell us he would have," said Sasuke shaking his head. "I have a hunch that this is also connected to why Naruto gets off-looks whenever we walk through town as a team." Sakura nodded her head as she recalled the last instant such a thing had occurred when they had been walking down the street and a mother had guided her son into a nearby shop, away from them as if in fear. Yet when she had tossed a final glance over her shoulder, it hadn't been the fear in her eyes she was expecting, but rather hatred. Hatred for what though? This she could not answer, no matter how good her grades were.

"So what do we start with first?" asked Sakura.

"When we find Kakashi, we'll tell him to have a quick session with Naruto this afternoon to give him some advice on how to be stealthy while obtaining information," started Sasuke. "While they're off doing their thing we'll go to Naruto's place and have a look around, maybe we can at least get a clue as to where we should start."

"Alright then, let's go find Kakashi," said Sakura as her teammate nodded before they both shot off to try and find the Jonin. While she would be spending the day researching the blond member of their team, she couldn't help but be happy that she would be spending the next few hours with Sasuke alone, something she had always dreamed of. Somehow though now she preferred the dreams to reality.

* * *

Naruto cowered slightly under the emotionless gaze Kakashi was sending his way. Knowing that the masked-man no doubt knew that he had been caught _cheating_, Naruto crossed his hands above his head in defence, pushing away his bowl of ramen for once. It also didn't help Naruto's appetite to know that his entire team was eating out of his wallet, the blonde having been the last one to come across their sensei.

"I-I'm sorry Kakashi sensei, I got us kicked out-"

"Nonsense," said Kakashi as he held a glove hand in the air to silence the blond. "It's my fault, I hadn't prepared the three of you adequately for the exams. Especially you, I haven't performed my duty as a teacher properly; your stealth and reconnaissance skills have never been all that strong."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest the unfairness of such an implication before promptly shutting it. There was a degree of truth to Kakashi's words, Naruto couldn't say that the team building exercises and chakra control exercises they had done had helped very much during the exam... it hadn't been anything he had expected it to be. It was more his fault, however, that he had expected the Chunin exams to involve more fighting-based tests than written ones.

Sakura prodded her fingers in a nervous fashion for once while Sasuke avoided the blond's eyes, both knowing that if they didn't get their teammate stuck with Kakashi they wouldn't be able to try and find any information.

Kakashi however, had an inkling of what was going on in the two's minds but he had been presented with a good opportunity to increase Naruto's general stealth and perception skills. Now was a better time than ever given that he was almost positive that if Naruto relived the day they fought Haku and Zabuza, he would still blindly charge into the ice prison Haku had conjured around Sasuke.

"Okay," said Naruto, nodding his head in acceptance. "So how are we going to do that?"

"Meet me at our usual training ground tomorrow, nine in the morning," said Kakashi before turning to Sakura and Sasuke. "The two of you can take tomorrow off, maybe think about how you yourselves could've gone about the entire situation in the exam better."

"Actually sensei," Sakura bit her lip slightly. "Sasuke and I were just about to leave, you guys could probably get an early start now."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow inquisitively at the girl's words, due to his height he could see that Sasuke hadn't yet finished his ramen but the raven-haired boy still stood up nonetheless. "Yeah I need to practice by myself, after all this time around Naruto I'm already feeling stupider." he said coldly without missing a beat so as to not give anything about what they were actually going to do away. Promptly leaving the ramen stand as Sakura followed, Sasuke headed towards the Uchiha clan grounds; where no-one would be able to overhear them.

Kakashi sighed as he pulled out an Icha-Icha book from his pocket before lowly muttering a few words to Naruto. "Finish your ramen so we can get started, the sun's going to be setting in about an hour or two."

Naruto simply nodded as he continued to eat his lunch, only looking up slightly whenever a slight giggle got past Kakashi's mask.

...

**Hope you enjoyed.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter is brought to you by Team Outback.**

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto**

Chapter 2

...

Hinata cowered slightly under the stern gaze of their proctor. The man wasn't staring at her in particular, but the iron stare he gave everyone was nerve wracking. Ibuki had just given the premise for the final question. He stated that: anybody who took the question, risked remaining as Genin for the rest of their careers.

One by one people dropped out of the exam, too frightened of the stipulation the proctor had given. They decided to try to graduate in the next exam. Hinata momentarily thought of raising her hand; like many others, she too was scared of the stipulation. But just as she was about to, she wondered what Naruto would do in this situation. A small smile graced her lips as she imagined him doing something reckless that would increase the courage of everybody in the classroom, preventing anybody else from chickening out of the question. And that was whether or not they had the ability to answer the question correctly.

Glancing around to the others within the room, Hinata was surprised to see even Shikamaru looking worried. He wasn't sweating per se, but it was clear that the young boy was tense. A quick glance to her right informed her that Shino wasn't unphased by the premise either.

Her eyes focused on Ibiki as she swallowed down the last of her nerves. It didn't matter how many people dropped out of this part of the exam, she would not be one of them. Naruto had put his trust in her. As Genin began to leave left, right and centre, forfeiting their chance to graduate, Hinata sat merely watching.

For Naruto, she would tackle this final question without fail.

…

Naruto eyed the large clearing that Kakashi had brought him to carefully. It wasn't the one that they usually trained in, but it wasn't dissimilar either. It was only slightly larger in radius to the one that Team 7 held their routine trainings in. The masked man had slumped against a tree trunk soon after they had arrived but Naruto hadn't paid much mind even as his sensei began to pull out his favourite orange book.

He was quite curious to find out what exactly Kakashi would have him do, especially since it involved stealth and reconnaissance. But, he couldn't help but feel a little worried at the same time. Tree climbing, something which he'd taught the whole team had been difficult, so Naruto wasn't exactly looking forward to something that Kakashi needed to teach him _individually_. However, since he had only realised that the first exam was about cheating afterwards, Naruto couldn't help but think that a bit more stealth practice was in order because even if he had realised the true purpose of the test he hadn't had any way to cheat.

Glancing around to the edges of the circular clearing, Naruto noticed that the shrubbery soon evolved into thick branches and millions of leaves. Short of the path they had entered from, there wasn't anywhere else that he could go. So, Kakashi probably wouldn't have anything 'hiding' related in store for him. Attempting to be patient and not forcing himself to let out a frustrated sigh at the inactivity of the man in front of him, Naruto sat down on the ground. As he began to ponder on the many happenings of the day, he heard Kakashi's book clap shut with an audible _thud_.

"Good, you're not as impatient as I expected you to be," said Kakashi with an almost aloof tone to his voice. "Now, the training that I'm about to have you do won't be anything quite like what you've experienced before in the academy, but it's important that you actually attempt it."

"What do you mean?" Naruto scratched his head in confusion as he looked up towards his sensei.

"There won't be any bells," explained Kakashi. "There won't be any chakra control this time either, you'll have one task."

"Which is?" asked Naruto as he eagerly awaited the man's answer.

"To catch me," declared Kakashi as he brought his hands together before flashing through a few hand seals. "**Kirigakure Jutsu!"**

Almost suddenly a large wall of mist sprang forward and consumed everything that Naruto could see, he found it difficult to even see his hand in front of his face, let alone the landscape around him. "Kakashi sensei, where are you?" shouted Naruto.

"You're not understanding the concept of this exercise Naruto," came Kakashi's voice, Naruto couldn't tell from where though. "Your objective is to find me in this mist without making a sound. You have to use all your resources to track me down without me knowing you are coming. If you fail to find me in the hour... do you remember what happened that day when you Sasuke and Sakura became a team, when you tried to take me on alone?"

Naruto shivered as he rubbed his rear, remembering the pain that Kakashi's technique had delivered. He made a mental note to shut up at this stage and do his best to find Kakashi. There was no way he was going to suffer the same pain more than once, especially when said pain involved having something shoved up his posterior.

He squinted slightly as he attempted to see through the mist, only to discover that the mist was far too thick to see through. He stood there for several seconds, still trying to peer through the mist but to no avail. Thankfully, nobody could see him at this stage. His reactions were quite humorous as he attempted to rip out his blonde locks of hair. '_Damn it,_' he cursed internally. '_If I can't use my eyes how the hell am I meant to find someone?'_

Taking a step forward, he felt a small tug of a single wire against his leg and pondered what that feeling was. The next moment, a large explosion occurred directly underneath him, sending him flying several metres before he hit the ground. "I forgot to mention," said Kakashi once more from deep within the mist, "You'll have to do your best to avoid the booby traps that I set up."

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto in anger as he got to his feet. The blast hadn't done too much damage to him, either that or his adrenaline was pumping so much that he didn't notice the pain. Grumbling under his breath, he stood still momentarily as he contemplated his options. Without the use of sight he effectively had no way of seeing where he was going or if he was running straight into any traps. A brilliant idea sparked and Naruto put his fingers into a patented cross before a Shadow Clone was summoned next to him. Yet it only remained alive for several seconds before a kunai zipped through the mist and caught it in the chest, instantly dispelling it.

"Sorry, for this exercise there will be no Shadow Clones," said Kakashi once more.

"Damn it Kakashi-sensei," grumbled Naruto. Now what was he supposed to do?

Naruto quickly ran through the jutsu that he knew but soon realised that anything remotely useful within his rather small inventory had to do with either Shadow Clones or Transformation techniques, the latter rendered useless due to the heavy mist covering everything within sight.

He couldn't see, he couldn't use Shadow Clones and he also had to avoid hitting booby traps meaning that running blindly and hoping for the best was not an option. Relying on his other senses wouldn't exactly work out either because Kakashi was a trained assassin. Ss silent as a pin drop, the thick-chakra like smell of the mist concealed Kakashi's scent and touching _random_ things wasn't exactly an option given that he didn't want to be sent flying ten metres into the air courtesy of an explosion.

Naruto reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small arsenal he carried on him. There were a handful of shuriken, two kunai, some ninja wire and a small explosive he had made earlier in the day incase he needed some way to obstruct his fellow Genin on their path to becoming Chunin. While it wasn't a grandiose arsenal it was at least something, the shuriken would help with any random projectiles Kakashi sent his way, provided he could sense them coming, while the kunai would be handy for cutting any wires linked to explosives that he could find. As for the explosive he had, he was well versed in backyard explosions, having used many of them in the various pranks that he'd performed over the years. The only problem was that none of those things would help him find Kakashi.

Rubbing his eyes, Naruto could already envision the pain that would befall his rear in sixty minutes time, and he was not looking forward to it.

…

"So where should we start off?" asked Sakura as she nervously looked to Sasuke for an answer.

"In here," said Sasuke, pointing towards the building they were standing opposite of. Sakura looked towards the old looking building, having been in there many times before but couldn't quite understand why they would come here of all places.

"What are we going to find in the library?" asked Sakura as the two of them walked towards the front door.

"This place also keeps copies of records that occur through Konoha, incase the original copies get misplaced or destroyed," said Sasuke as he pushed open the door. "Just follow my lead."

"Okay," said Sakura as she composed herself. She wasn't quite sure what Sasuke had planned but she would do her best not to freak out.

"How can I help you?" asked the Librarian as she saw the two of them make their way towards the counter. "I'll just let you know we are shutting up in twenty minutes."

"Thank you, but we're actually looking for something more specific," said Sasuke. "The Hokage's asked us if we could go over some of the old records concerning the location of graffiti, vandalism and things like that so we can construct a report on where security should be increased."

"This seems like something that should be done by somebody a little older than a couple of young teenagers," said the Librarian suspiciously.

"The thing is though, the two of us were the top of our class - grades wise, and the Hokage gave this task to us to see how our information gathering skills are, as well as our analytic knowledge in a given situation," explained Sasuke.

"This is probably just a test of some kind," said Sakura decided to chime in. "If we can manage to write up a decent report you might find other Genin coming in and doing similar research."

"If you think about it, if we didn't have these skills out on a mission, incorrect knowledge and analysis could prove to be _fatal_," said Sasuke, putting emphasis on the final word.

"Alright, I understand," said the Librarian, accepting what the two Genin were saying. "Since these are to be kept on premises at all times I cannot allow you to rent out the documents for the night but you two seem trustworthy enough that I'll be willing to let you stay in here an extra couple of hours."

"You're too kind," said Sakura appreciatively with a light bow.

"So where abouts can we find this information?" asked Sasuke.

"All those sorts of files can be found on the second floor in the Eastern wing," explained the Librarian as she pointed towards the designated area. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to see the report once it is completed. Seeing young people study in the library is one of those things that bring me joy, seeing the fruits of your hard work would be most appreciated."

Sasuke shivered slightly, wondering what it was with this woman, but thankfully his small movements went unnoticed. "Well this research isn't going to be... researched," he said as his mind failed him momentarily, the reason for such a thing occurring was the Librarian had gathered a nearby book and had hugged it passionately for some strange reason.

"I'll be sure to make a copy of our report for you," said Sakura, covering for her teammate's blunder. "C'mon Sasuke, let's get started while we still have some daylight," she finished as she grabbed his hand and lead him away. It took her several seconds for her to realize that she was holding Sasuke's hand and nervously let go as a crimson blush adorned her face, thankfully since she was in front of her crush he didn't see the red blush upon her cheeks.

"Why'd you stop?" asked Sasuke wondering why his teammate had frozen in place so suddenly.

"Thought I was going to sneeze," said Sakura lying through her teeth as she started walking again, not wanting to make eye contact with the last Uchiha. It didn't take the two of them long to traverse the stairs and find the correct shelf...finding the right lot of documents however was not so easy.

"Where is it?" grumbled Sasuke as he put back the files he had pulled out, this one being the details on the number of visitors who came through the gates of Konoha every week. While all this information would be useful (he had always feared being stuck on guard duty with one of his fan girls) it was not what they were after.

"I think I've got it," said Sakura as she blew dust of a bundle of papers within her hands. "Accounts of Vandalism on the Bo... no wait, that's not it."

Sasuke sighed heavily, "Maybe we should just go back and ask that old lady to find it for us?"

"I doubt she'll do it," answered Sakura duly, "she'll probably say something about young children having to learn how to conduct research themselves if she doesn't stick with us for the next two hours."

"Doesn't sound too helpful," Sasuke groaned. "For the love of god, why are there so many damn documents?"

…

Naruto threw himself to the ground as an explosion behind him shook everything in its immediate vicinity. He hadn't had much luck at all with catching Kakashi-sensei, the best he had gotten so far was the man's footsteps, let alone a visual. He supposed that wouldn't do much good either because of the mist which literally caked everything around him. "Only 15 minutes left Naruto," whispered Kakashi's voice eerily, making the hair on Naruto's neck stand on end.

"Damn it," grumbled Naruto as he felt like tearing out his hair. It was all because of Kakashi's rules that he couldn't do anything that would really be to his advantage. It was then that a little spark seemed to ignite and an ingenious idea, or at least the best one he could think of, seemed to appear. Putting his hands into his patented seal, a single shadow clone was created directly in front of him. Barely a second had passed for the clone to be in existence before a kunai pierced through the mist and caught the clone. Naruto however wasn't phased by that but watched as the clone was pushed to the left ever so slightly before it puffed out of existence. The entire process had only lasted about two seconds but that was all the time Naruto needed as he whipped out his shuriken and tossed them towards his right.

From his position, Kakashi dropped to the ground as his instincts kicked in, a couple of shuriken were lodged into the tree he had been standing by while others had pressed further into the mist. Underneath his mask a small smirk crossed his face; Naruto's plan had actually been impressive, using the rules to his advantage. The blonde had known that Shadow Clones were not permitted in this test but summoned one anyway with the knowledge that it would be destroyed. He also had the knowledge to realise that there was a slight delay between the damage taken and the clone being removed from existence so that when the kunai struck it would knock the clone in the direction that the weapon had been thrown from before vanishing.

"I know where you are Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto as he charged towards the direction the Jonin was in. He barely made a dozen steps before he snagged a small wire, tearing it in two and setting the trap in motion.

Kakashi sighed as he looked away, it seemed as if the small victory had quickly gone to Naruto's head and the blonde had completely forgotten that the land was booby trapped. He made a mental note that he'd have to fix that as well somewhere down the track, knowing when not to fight was as important as knowing when to fight. He almost cringed as he heard several small explosions go off in the area that Naruto had been charging towards before he tutted slightly. This was something that definitely needed to be fixed sometime within the near future.

…

Hinata washed her face as she looked at herself in the mirror. Even though it had only been a minor achievement it had been a great deal considering her confidence had jumped up leaps and bounds... that was until something brought her back down again. Including her team, eleven had made it through the first exam after choosing to answer the tenth question. Not only that, but the other two teams from Konoha with Genin roughly their age had managed to make it through and she couldn't help but feel happy that her friends had gotten through. Then they had met the proctor for the second exam, Mitarashi Anko and she couldn't help but relate the eccentric woman to Naruto and all those happy thoughts had gone straight out the window.

That being said, she prayed that Naruto never decided to wear such revealing clothes in public, just thinking about the fishnet piece that had adorned Anko's body made her flush in embarrassment and she couldn't help but wonder if Naruto would like that kind of thing. As she looked in the mirror, she couldn't help but wonder how she would look wearing something similar to what Anko had worn. She could practically envision it...yet her vision sent her mind into overload and she dropped to her knees as her face felt as if it was on fire.

She prayed that at her birthday several years down the track somebody like Ino didn't decide to get her something similar to that outfit, she didn't know whether or not she could survive such an embarrassment. "Lady Hinata, your father sends word that he expects you at the dinner table shortly," said a voice from outside her room.

"Thank you," replied Hinata, happy that a distraction of some kind had gotten her mind off of such disturbing thoughts. Getting back to her feet, she splashed her face once more with water, knowing that she had to have a calm mind when her father asked her about the first exam. As she stepped out the bathroom, she hoped that she wouldn't disappoint him throughout the course of this exam.

…

Sasuke smirked in victory at Sakura's announcement that she had finally found the right documents. They hadn't been looking in the wrong section or anything like that, there had simply been too many scrolls within the large library for them to find anything relevant to their interests.

Unfortunately the results had been somewhat inconclusive. While Sakura had managed to fetch a list of the proctors of the first exam, it hadn't helped all that much as even though they had a list of most accounts of vandalism within Konoha, the victims of the vandalism mentioned in the documents didn't match up with the list of Chunin Sakura had grabbed. She had chimed in by saying that the documents had only recorded _major_ events and that Naruto's pranks were usually low-key. He didn't always paint the Hokage monument a different colour, but they had both been amused to note that said prank had been one of the ones listed.

Sasuke had reasoned afterwards that a mere prank from an academy student on a Chunin wasn't exactly something that would end up on important documents such as the ones they had found in the library. Sakura had only been able to agree, but she had suggested that they look at other things. It'd been a long-shot but she had suggested that since they were at the library, they might as well look at different records of vandalism. While neither Sakura nor Sasuke had the energy to go through another gigantic list, the promise of finding out what exactly smelled so fishy fuelled the two of them enough to go through the documents and find something of use.

There had been written reports and summaries on almost each event on the list, but Sakura had suggested to look for something far more accurate: a graph. They'd come across enough random ones as they had tried to find the initial one anyway, so it was only a matter of time before they came across one relating to the overall state of vandalism or something similar in Konoha.

"Take a look!" she said excitedly as she beckoned Sasuke over to her, basking in the knowledge that she had done something good in front of her crush.

"Vandalism in Konoha Sorted by Suburb..." Sasuke trailed his finger over the words as he murmured the title. "Looks like it's something."

"So where exactly should we start?" Sakura asked as she placed the list of all the Chunin proctors of the first exam besides the graph.

"Well look at the photo of each Chunin as well as the info, it's not that hard to figure out where they'd live." Sasuke said as he gestured to a random one on the sheet at the top of the bundle of documents, "Look here. This one here, Naoya Kamatsu, you can tell by her appearance that she's real rich and her description makes her sound like a stuck up snob. She's probably living in one of the wealthier districts."

Sasuke pointed towards the three wealthiest districts on the line-graph that he knew, "But you can pretty much safely say that she's not got much against Naruto because there hasn't been much vandalism in her district. It's a stab in the dark if anything, but it's all we've got." He shrugged slightly as Sakura looked on at the two pieces of paper in interest.

What felt like hours passed rapidly as the two of them rapidly worked their way through the list, cross-referencing it with the graph before Sakura suddenly noticed something askew. "Hey Sasuke..." she said slowly.

"Yeah?" he looked up to meet her eyes, slightly disappointed that she had interrupted him with something that wasn't a breakthrough in the research they were conducting. However that didn't seem to discern the pink-haired girl as she pointed to the highest point on the line graph.

"Look at this district," said Sakura as her voice wavered slightly, despite her nerves she had a feeling that she was onto something. "It's had more vandalism in the past ten years than any of the other districts, in fact it's leagues ahead!"

"What exactly did you expect?" Sasuke asked unimpressed, "it's the Murita District, the place closest to being the slums in all of Konoha."

"Yeah, I know, I know, but why don't we check if any of the Chunin are from there? It'll probably save us time in the long run because this place is so far ahead above the others that if anyone's going to have a grudge against Naruto because of vandalism, it'd be someone from there."

"Already did," said Sasuke grimly. "I can't help but wonder why it's so far ahead of the other districts though... I mean it's the least populated of all."

"I've got a vague idea," Sakura said as a light bulb seemed to go off in her head. "Where does Naruto live again?"

"The Murita District," Sasuke said, snapping up as the dots began to connect. "But why exactly would the district he lives in be the one with the most accounts of vandalism?"

"I guess he needs to practice his pranks somewhere," Sakura sighed, stifling a yawn as she rubbed her head.

"Does Naruto look like a person who would voluntarily practice things to you?" Sasuke asked as Sakura shook her head instantly, "furthermore, he's not the kind to do so on the defenceless and weak. All of his targets, that we know of at least, have been pretty high profile people."

"True," Sakura admitted. "I guess that doesn't help much then... but still why would-"

"Excuse me children," the sharp voice of the librarian cut in. "I'm just about to pack up for the night and library rules are that I can't leave anyone in here unattended."

"Even though we're on a mission from the Hokage?" Sasuke asked, lying skillfully as Sakura bit her lip.

"If you two would scoot along and get a note from the Hokage, I'd open the doors back up as well as offer an apology but for now I'm going to have to escort the two of you out." she said impatiently.

"Can't we have just ten more minutes?" pleaded Sakura, "I promise we'll be quick!"

"Now listen here, I've already done the two of you a favour by letting you stay after hours. I even gave you guys an extra half an hour of research while I sat around twiddling my thumbs and cleaning behind the shelves, but some of us have a family they need to get back to and cook for!" While she seemed to be growing angrier with each passing second that did nothing to deter Sasuke from attempting to negotiate with her.

"You can leave the keys with me and I'll return them to you tomorrow morning, I swear on my name."

"Get out of here before I call security, the two of you can do your research tomorrow like all the other citizens."

Sasuke and Sakura didn't need to be told twice as they quickly packed up the scrolls they had been researching. They then put them back roughly in the same position as where they'd found them. As they walked past the librarian, they bowed politely without saying another word, not wanting to draw her wrath once more. As they stepped outside the library, the doors audibly locking behind them, they were somewhat relieved to see a familiar face walking nearby.

"Hey guys," said Naruto as he waved to his teammates. Sasuke and Sakura turned towards the hyperactive blonde and both of them quickly noticed the difference in the way that he was walking. Both of them had only seen the effects of a single technique which could do something like that once before, and neither of them ever wanted to experience what Naruto had suffered twice now.

"How was your training Naruto?" asked Sakura.

"Brutal," replied Naruto, not wanting to get into any of the horrendous details. "Kakashi-sensei told me to tell you two that we're going to be doing similar training tomorrow and to meet at Training Ground Twelve at eight in the morning."

"Training Ground Twelve," repeated Sasuke. "Why do we have to meet up there? What's wrong with our usual training spot?"

"The landscape here's a bit different and we can use it for a few different tests. Anyways, it's not like we're going to fight someone in the most idealistic landscape every single time," explained Naruto.

"I guess you have a point," said Sakura thinking it through.

"Anyways, I'm going to be there at seven setting up tomorrow so I'll meet you guys whenever you decide to rock up," said Naruto as he started to walk away from the duo towards his unit.

"Why are you going to be there early, you know that Kakashi probably won't be there for another couple of hours after eight so why rock up early?" asked Sakura.

"I've got a few things to set up," said Naruto with a chuckle. Sasuke and Sakura saw that mischievous look in his eyes and they couldn't help but feel like they should be sorry for Kakashi-sensei, undoubtedly the blonde was planning on exacting a bit of revenge upon whatever experience he had just survived through.

"Well before you head off, do you want to get something to eat, a little team bonding?" asked Sakura.

"As good as a bowl of ramen would be, I'm actually going to ice my ass for the next hour or so just so that I can actually sit down within the next few days," said Naruto as he rubbed his ass for emphasis. "I'll see you two in the morning."

"Do you reckon we should be there to help him set up whatever it is that he's got planned?" Sakura asked of Sasuke once Naruto had gotten out of earshot.

"I think this is a bit too personal for me to get involved in," said Sasuke. "I still want to try and keep on Kakashi's good side."

"I guess," said Sakura. "Would you still be interested in getting some dinner now, a bit of team bonding just between the two of us?"

"Actually I'm going to go do a bit of training myself," said Sasuke as he rubbed his jaw, recalling the fight that he had gotten into that morning which had been a humiliating loss against the spandex clad Rock Lee. His movements weren't something that Sasuke could pick up with his sharingan, which meant that he had to find some way to improve his eyesight and reaction time. He didn't doubt that even if he trained his eyesight alone he'd be able to stop the attacks from assaulting him with the slow speed he fought at at the moment. "I'll see you in the morning Sakura."

And just like that Sakura was left standing outside the library by herself, she felt as if a rain cloud could have formed above her head right at that moment and she wouldn't have been surprised. Placing her hands in her pockets, she decided to take the long route back home, figuring a peaceful walk would do her good.

Unknown to his teammates, as soon as Naruto had gotten out of hearing distance, he had chuckled under his breath. As Kakashi had instructed he had leaked out only minor details that could be misinterpreted, much like how they had been. He would still be there from the early hours of the morning, except the traps he was setting up weren't targeted at his sensei.

After all, tomorrows training exercise was for all of them to participate in.

…

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter from Kakarot Son and Razamataz22.**

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	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

…

"Alright, so now that we're all here I think it's best that I explain what you'll be doing today," said Kakashi after finally appearing before his team.

"Do you mean to say we're doing something different?" asked Sakura as she thought back to the words Naruto had spoken yesterday. "Naruto said we're doing some kind of similar training to what he was doing so does that mean we're all going to be doing reconnaissance drills?"

"Unfortunately, no. Well kind of but not exactly, there'll only be one objective of today's training session..." Kakashi trailed off mysteriously as Sasuke and Sakura both shrugged to themselves. "And that is to catch Naruto."

"Catch Naruto?" Sakura muttered in disbelief, "that's not even going to be challenging, he's really slow!"

"Sakura has a point," Sasuke said as his eyes darted around the training ground, attempting to look "underneath the underneath" because with Kakashi it was never as simple as he attempted to make it seem. "It's not as though Naruto's even really going to be able to get that far away from us."

"You'd be surprised," chuckled Kakashi as he twirled a kunai around his fingers. "Who said he was with you two in the first place?" With a fluid motion he threw the kunai straight through Naruto's somewhat unsuspecting stomach as it disappeared with a poof.

Meanwhile deep within the set boundary lines that Kakashi had signaled, Naruto's head lifted as he finished setting up his final trap. "There we go," he said as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "And Kakashi-sensei just told them the...wait...why do I know that?"

"Wait, you mean Naruto can use Shadow Clones too?" Sakura protested, "that's unfair, he can literally make a thousand of them! How are we supposed to know which one of them is him?"

"No, that was the only Shadow Clone he was allowed," Kakashi said as he eyed the kunai which had embedded itself in a tree. "It wouldn't be half as fun otherwise, however to level the playing field a little bit Naruto's set up a few surprises for you guys."

"Pfft like the dobe could set up anything decent," Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest as he attempted to keep up an unworried facade, however on the inside he was attempting to look for clues as to where Naruto had run off to. Naruto was loud and wore bright orange, he wasn't exactly born to hide.

"So I'll leave you guys to-"

"Wait! Kakashi-sensei, what're you going to be doing this whole time?" Sakura questioned as she noticed the man was beginning to raise his hands in order to Shunshin away from them.

"Me?" he gave what Sakura could only assume was a smile, "well I'll be supervising of course." With a small puff of smoke, not dissimilar to the one Naruto's clone had given off, Kakashi vanished leaving the least eccentric members of Team Seven to themselves.

"So where do you think Naruto is?" questioned Sakura as she attempted to break the loud silence that overcame the entire training ground.

"Well I'd say he's probably on the edges of the training ground, it's way too quiet for Naruto to be around here," answered Sasuke. "I saw a river that cut into the training ground on my way in, I reckon he'll be using the sound of flowing water to mask himself so I'll go check that out. You should probably head off the other way." With that, Sasuke began to walk away from the small clearing that they were in but just as he was about to head off he paused slightly as Sakura bellowed a few words.

"Sasuke! Don't you think it's best we stick together? I mean this could probably be another one of Kakashi's teamwork exercises and besides two pairs of eyes are better than one." she yelled as he spun around, facing her as he entertained the notion.

"Alright, we'll do that. But if we don't manage to find anything at the river we should probably split up," Sasuke said not particularly in the mood to deal with the high-pitched voice that usually paired itself with Sakura's company.

"Yeah, okay and besides I'm sure Naruto would think twice about ambushing the two of us instead of just one—he probably wants us to split up," said Sakura. She totally wasn't using the situation to her advantage in order to spend more time with Sasuke. Totally.

"So what kind of surprises do you reckon Naruto's going to have in store for us?" Sakura asked as she broke into a run in order to catch up with Sasuke.

"That's the thing, it's Naruto. He's an idiot but he's an unpredictable one, we could be dealing with anything from some insane variant of that Sexy Jutsu of his to him trying to pour a bucket of paint on us." Sasuke said, as he increased the pace. "Plus I'm sure he'll be eager to try out some of the tricks Kakashi-sensei showed him yesterday."

"What do you think Kakashi-sensei would've shown him?" asked Sakura, "Naruto's not exactly the quickest at getting Jutsu down."

"Actually I heard he got that Shadow Clone technique of his down in a couple of hours, but I reckon Kakashi would've shown him how to sneak up on people and all that. Probably something along the lines of keeping the words on the inside his head instead of yelling all over the place like a mess."

"We really didn't have a chance in the Chunin exams, did we?" said Sakura rhetorically, an absent-minded tone to her voice.

"Not really." She was surprised to see Sasuke agree with her, "As much as I hate to admit it, the three of us weren't really prepared at all for the exams."

…

As this was going on, the rest of their graduate group that had made it to Genin were currently scattered throughout training ground forty four, commonly referred to as the Forest of Death. Team Eight had been given the Heaven scroll at the beginning of the test but had already acquired the Earth scroll, having used the leeches of Konoha's natural predatory instinct to their advantage. The trap had been quite simple to set up really, Hinata had used her Byakugan to locate where the nearest team was most likely to come from while Shino used his bugs to locate the perfect ambush spot. Kiba had been the one to set up the trap since he was the fastest then all they had to do was set up a trail of leads for them to be found easily enough.

For those who had been caught up in the trap, they were lucky that Team Eight had executed the leeches before their life was ended. Now however, as they scrambled to somewhere safe, they found themselves staring at a single pair of feet before them. They looked up towards the headband, quickly noticing that it was a single ninja from a rival nation. Turning their eyes away, they hoped that this ninja would be merciful and spare their lives. It was not to be as three kunai were quickly produced and lodged themselves into the back of the necks of each of the team members.

Little did they know that apart from a single Genin from Suna, this was possibly the last person who would ever give out even a tiny amount of mercy towards an opponent. Though he was wearing a disguise, Orochimaru had no qualms with killing the pitiful excuses for ninja that lay before him. The Sannin needed to vent out his anger and frustration somehow. When he had learnt that Sasuke had failed to make it past the first part of the exam he had quickly become irritated, knowing that his chance to gain the Sharingan this time round had effectively alluded him.

Yet that was when he had located a new target, another bloodline that could potentially come useful in the years to come. While there were two Genin who he could potentially use, he was well aware of the seal placed on one of the Genin which would destroy the bloodline before he got the chance to properly experiment on it. Hence there was only one target he was interested in, in fact he was looking to see just what the Hyuga heiress could do. Leaping off into the trees, he already had a general idea of where she and her team were but he would bide his time; after all, he enjoyed playing with his prey.

…

Sasuke sighed as he looked around the large river, Sakura watching his back in the opposite direction, he couldn't seem to find any sign of his blonde haired teammate. He never recalled Naruto having had hiding skills that weren't subpar but for some reason it seemed almost impossible to find him.

The walk up to the river had been relatively quiet and even now, the only audible sound was that of water streaming down the river; Sakura had decided to stop talking after he decided to stop responding to her incessant attempts to make small talk. She looked just as confused as he was which was slightly unnerving, as he didn't have the slightest idea of where to go after the river. The training ground was a large, dense area... Naruto could literally be anywhere from under the water they were standing by to hiding up in the trees that were what seemed like a kilometre away from their current location.

In fact it would make sense, given Naruto's training session with Kakashi that he had realised that there was no incentive for him to go after the two of them. After all they were the ones who were meant to find him, it wasn't as though Naruto would willing come after them, at least if he'd learnt something from Kakashi.

"So what do we do now?" questioned Sakura, finally breaking the long silence that overcome the pair. "He's clearly not here."

"We better split up then," explained Sasuke, "because we'll be able to cover way more ground. And like you said, we're more vulnerable when we're by ourselves so it's likely that Naruto will _attempt_ to ambush us."

Noting the emphasis on the word "attempt" as she nodded in agreement, Sakura asked another question, "So what do we do if we find him?"

"We capture him of course," Sasuke sighed before he realised who exactly he was talking to. "Well actually, if you see him just shout out to me, I'm not sure if you could take Naruto with all his traps by yourself."

Sakura could only agree, "So where should I go?"

"Why don't you head down back where we came from?" suggested Sasuke. "Go a little further and see if we came the wrong way, I'll... stick around here and take a closer look."

"Okay, if I don't manage to find any sign of him I'll head back here," Sakura said, obviously eager to not be left alone, before walking off.

Sasuke's eyes darted around the area once more before he closed them with a look of focus upon his face. It was clear that he was calm and rather collected, however when he opened his eyes again they looked anything but. His onyx-coloured eyes had developed into a much darker red, while two tomeo appeared beside his slightly enlarged pupils. Though he knew that the Sharingan wouldn't be that much use in a situation like the one he was in, this probably being one of the few times the Byakugan was superior, it did clear up his vision slightly... he could see with more clarity, more perception.

He figured that it would be worth a shot as he still was somewhat sure that Naruto would be around the river, the other places were too quiet for some like him after all, and it was good at picking up odd things like an odd shuffling of leaves. After having a stealth lesson with Kakashi though, Sasuke couldn't neglect the possibility that Naruto was hiding in a single spot and would have created a circular pattern of traps around him, protecting himself from getting discovered. It was a simple tactic to understand, the closer he got to where Naruto was located the bigger and grander the traps were going to be.

With Sakura having gone down her own path back the way they had came, Sasuke decided to venture straightforward. Sakura would meet him back at this location provided she found nothing and if that were the case then she would return to the side of the river where the two of them would plan their next course of action.

Yet meeting up with his teammate would have to wait as he felt his foot graze a hidden wire, activating the trap that had been set. Scanning his surroundings quickly, Sasuke watched as from all around him kunai were projected towards the singular spot where he was standing. "I was expecting more from you Naruto," said Sasuke with a smirk as he jumped up, avoiding the kunai with ease. Yet as he floated in the air he wasn't able to notice the second part of the trap until it was too late, a single ball falling from above which he only managed to see when it was directly in front of his eyes for a moment before it exploded.

From where she was, Sakura heard the explosion go off and looked back in the direction where she had come from worried for Sasuke's safety. Yet she shook her head as she reassured herself, even if one of Naruto's traps had gone off there was no way that Sasuke would have gotten caught in one this early. Unfortunately she couldn't have been much more wrong as Sasuke landed on the ground, coughing and wheezing as he the black mist surrounding him was inhaled. The mixture wasn't poisonous by any means, but it was more than irritating as Sasuke pondered just how much pepper Naruto had managed to cram into that small explosive. He tried to open his eyes but his vision was blurry with tears as he continued to cough violently. Undoubtedly, he realised that he was going to have to be a lot more cautious from now on.

Pressing forward, Sakura didn't really know what to expect out here in this training ground. The setup was unfamiliar with her so she had no real idea where the best hiding spot for Naruto would be. Looking around she quickly surveyed her surroundings, working out where the highest possibility of an attack would come from. To her left and right were thick groups of trees with numerous hiding places but at the same time it would be difficult to launch an attack without being seen. Shiting her gaze skyward Sakura viewed the canopy that seemed to blanket out a majority of the sun. This was something which quickly worried her, there could be countless amounts of potential vantage points from above where Naruto would silently wait until the time was right to unleash something that would directly land on top of her. Sakura shook her head frantically, reminding herself that this was Naruto that had set the traps but as she thought about this single topic she realised, it was Naruto that set these traps and thus they were potentially very dangerous.

Deciding to press forward once more, she stopped before she even began as she spotted a small squirrel in the clearing before her, gnawing away at a nut that it had found. To the teenage girl, Sakura couldn't help but think how adorable the situation was as she edged closer to get a better look, sadly stepping into a rope trap for her trouble.

It took a moment for the pink haired girl to realise what had happened as she hung upside down from a single ankle, her hair hanging below her as she swayed side to side. Internally she was yelling at herself for falling into such a simple trap but before she cut herself free her eyes landed upon the squirrel and even from her position she could see that it was giving her the 'peace' sign before it ran behind a nearby tree and vanished from sight. Realising she had been duped, she opted to remain hanging there for another minute or two as to calm herself somewhat so that she didn't blindly charge into another of Naruto's traps. But when she found him however there would be hell to pay.

…

Hinata let out a heavy laboured breath as she watched Kiba charge towards the pale-faced man once again. They had long since abandoned any tactics that they'd been taught by Kurenai-sensei, they had started off trying to do so but only watched with wide eyes as the man managed to evade everything they threw at them. Even Shino was sweating, grunting, as he threw fist after fist at the strange Genin... the fact that the normally silent Aburame had resorted to desperate measures spoke volumes about how horrid the situation had become. It mattered little though as they were beaten without hesitation, even Akamaru didn't leave the battle unscathed as his owner lay unconscious after having been kicked viciously into a tree.

There was only one man, they had discovered, but he was about the equivalent of fifty different Genin teams. Literally anything they threw at him was thrown back at them with an air of casual airiness about him, he wasn't just laughing at them as he tore them apart piece by part, he was toying with them. Rock Lee's team had attempted to come to their aid but it had been very short lived, the young protogé of Gai-sensei had quickly been bested in Taijutsu and had been sent flying what looked like a few kilometres in the air. Tenten had taken to the trees in an attempt to catch him off guard with her weapons, something that wasn't exactly working out too well as multiple projectiles were fired back at her striking true and Neji... Neji was lying sprawled out across the ground a couple metres away from him.

Activating the Byakugan quickly, Hinata analysed her cousin's body, relieved to find that he was on the floor mostly because he had completely exhausted his chakra... he had used so much of it that despite the close range, Hinata was having trouble seeing it normally. However that was by no means the worst of his injuries, his right kneecap appeared to be shattered and the same shoulder, fractured. He wasn't unconscious, just hanging on by a thread but Hinata was unsurprised to see that he still had his Byakugan activated despite being at such an edge.

'_Neji... how are you still willing to fight? Your body has been damaged and you know that if you try and fight you'll just be hurt even more... so why?'_ Though he hadn't spoken a single word to her since he had arrived, the heiress hadn't been struck... at least not too violently in the presence of her cousin. It had been rather selfless of him to throw himself in the way multiple times, something she was sure he had done only out of fear for what would happen to him should she die in his presence, but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. However as his crippled body laid on the ground, blood soaking the dirt beneath him it left only the Hyuga heiress as the only one left standing against the foe who was chuckling at the sight before him. The damage she had taken was minimal in comparison to those of her teammates and the temporary allies they had gained but it was her lack of courage that had her rooted to the spot unable to move.

The prodigy of her clan had been beaten as if it was nothing, so what could she do against such an enemy? Thankfully for her the foe had remained in place, merely waiting to see what she would do. Slowly, Hinata began to move, walking forward step by step as her body visibly shook. She didn't get far however as she stepped past Neji and raised her arms to her sides, shielding the member of the branch family with her own body much to his horror yet he said nothing.

"Kukuku, this is interesting," chuckled Orochimaru as he whipped out several kunai and tossed them mercilessly, the three projectiles piercing into Hinata's skin making the Hyuga whimper in pain but she refused to back down.

The name "Orochimaru" was definitely something that she recognised as a ninja of Konoha but it was only now that it she truly realised that the man standing before her was the _most_ notorious traitor in Konoha. Against her own will, her body began to shake in fear as she felt blood trail across her cream skin. With every passing moment it got worse and worse as though extreme amounts of pressure were being exuded by the Sannin, and she let out a little cry in pain as she felt her knees begin to buckle as another kunai lodged itself in her shoulder.

Despite having three hundred and sixty degrees of vision, Hinata couldn't even see the ground. The feeling was horrifying, as if the man's aura was ripping apart her soul as sharp kunai continued to pierce her skin with levels of precision she had never before laid eyes on before.

"It has been a while since I've crossed roads with a Hyuga," said Orochimaru as his tongue slithered in his mouth. "Kukuku and it's just my luck that I've come across two of them today."

Hinata's eyes widened in fear as the words left the man's mouth. All her allies, provisional or not, were lying on the ground battered a few metres away from her and Neji. She didn't need the Byakugan to tell that she was the only one left with the ability to move but that didn't stop her from praying to whatever deity that would listen hoping that the man in front of her would be stopped. She wasn't sure what he wanted exactly but she didn't have to be a _genius_ to take a guess and while there were several alternates she could only imagine what Orochimaru could do with a set of unbranded Hyuga eyes.

She knew her history, Orochimaru was the very definition of a mad scientist, so it wasn't as though he'd put aside the chance to get his hands on one of, if not, the most esteemed Dojutsu in the entire ninja world. She was just glad that there was nothing which openly stated that she was the heiress of the clan, that would just be asking for trouble. Yet she was unaware of just the amount of knowledge that Orochimaru contained along with the fact that he was very aware of just who it was that was standing before him.

Running her fingers across her arms, Hinata trembled slightly as she let out another shiver. Neji's forehead was covered by his forehead protector, hers was not and the unnerving curiosity with which the snake-like man eyed her with made her feel more than uncomfortable. As the man stopped firing kunai with cruel accuracy, he advanced towards her licking his lips as he chuckled to himself in a disturbing manner. His gaze swung towards Neji almost suddenly, as though a particularly intriguing idea had crossed his mind and he slowed his advance.

Hinata wasted no time in grabbing a kunai with a trembling hand and flinging it at the Snake Sannin, she didn't care for the accuracy of it or how much damage it would do, all she wanted was to get the man to back off, to go away and leave Neji and her friends alone... they hadn't asked to be assaulted by a legendary ninja during the Chunin exams.

...

Orochimaru's face cackled into a mad grin when he saw Hinata's attempt at defending herself, it was interesting that the heiress of the most influential clan in Konoha was so weak... almost like a flower that could have its petals peeled right off. As curious he was to learn about how exactly Konoha had slipped, he wasn't there to play games. If Sasuke Uchiha wasn't present, another person would have to do—he had gone to far too much effort plotting out his plan to let a minor hitch like the Sharingan wielder's absence to throw him off guard.

Of all the Genin present, none were truly impressive as he was sure Otogakure's Genin force would have no trouble tearing them to shreds, one shone slightly above the others. As disappointing as it was to not have Sasuke present, the thought of experimenting... improvising, it was too much. He wouldn't be able to leave the poor defenceless Genin alone in the forest without trying what he was thinking of, it was too intriguing.

Kabuto has flashed him through some of the potential Genin threats, despite how ridiculous the notion sounded Orochimaru liked to be everything but unprepared, and he'd found a few rather interesting names. It seemed as though Konoha's next generation of clan heirs were present in the one exam that he'd just _decided_ to gatecrash but as much fun as causing some political unrest would be, he wasn't looking at any of the heirs.

The Inuzuka one was less than impressive, the Aburame as stoic as ever, and he didn't even want to bother with the Yamanakas or their two closest allies. The Hyuga one on the other hand was... different. The roles of the two Genin had been reversed, the heiress to the clan was weak while the slavery seal bearing branch member was strong. Not just strong for a Genin, a prodigy, somewhat akin to what Orochimaru himself had been, except for the fact that even as an academy student Orochimaru would've been able to blow the young Hyuga out like a candle. Needless to say it would be interesting to see what happened when the Hyuga Clan's seal and his own one clashed.

As he stalked closer to the boy's near-unconscious body, licking his lips in anticipation, his face snapped up just in time for him to block a nasty strike to his chest with his forearm. His eyes widened slightly as he realised that Hinata had taken a firm stance and even though she was shaking nervously, there was an air of determined about her.

"Interesting..." he flicked her down to the ground, only for her to spring back up once again. As tempted as he was to take her out as he had to the several other Genin behind them, there was something appealing about the thought of toying with the girl so much that the even the paralyzing genjutsu that Itachi had cast on him years ago would look like a joke. However, unlike her cousin who was still trying to get to his feet despite his limbs failing to obey him, Hinata bore no competing seal upon her body. Unlike Sasuke who he knew would have searched for power to gain retribution upon Itachi, Hinata would search for power in order to protect those around her. Even against impossible odds, she was still willing to stand in danger's way and fight against an opponent who had decimated her friends and allies. Somewhere, deep within Orochimaru's dark core he couldn't help but feel a tiny ping of respect towards the shinobi of his former nation but it was heavily outweighed by all of the thoughts and possibilities that could come from such a chance.

He also wasn't foolish enough to believe that there wouldn't be somebody coming after him shortly, undoubtedly some of the Konoha ninja would have found the dead bodies of his two 'teammates' that had been mutilated before the start of the exam. As such he expected ANBU reinforcements to start coming soon and while he didn't doubt that he could handle some pitiful excuses of 'elite' shinobi, he was more worried that his former sensei may make an appearance on the scene. Alongside however many Konoha shinobi that were brought along with him, getting caught up in a full scale battle was at the moment not part of the plan. Perhaps that had been why he had held back so much, ensuring that all of the Genin present would survive for now, he couldn't help but wonder what the future of Konoha had in store and it wasn't like him to see how others would grow, yet there was one here who would be influenced by another source.

Putting his hands into a complicated seal, his neck arose from his body much to the horror of the young Hyuga who couldn't react in time as his teeth sunk into her neck. Hinata screamed out in pain, music to Orochimaru's ears as her cousin cried out her name. As he injected his chakra deep into her skin, it didn't take long for the seal to begin to form before he retraced his teeth and his neck returned to a normal shape. Before him, Hinata dropped to her knees before she completely passed out. As her body hit the ground, Orochimaru vanished, leaping away faster than any of the Genin could see. He would see with his own eyes if the next generation had what it took to play in the big scheme of things, but having another puppet at his disposal was never a bad thing.

…

**This chapter was brought to you by Team Outback. Hope you enjoyed.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto.**

**This chapter was brought to you by Team Outback.**

…

Kakashi watched from out of view as Sasuke fell into another one of Naruto's traps and had to admire the ingenuity that his blonde student had, he hadn't ever thought of using empty toilet rolls, ninja wire and a live rabbit in such a way as Naruto had. That being said he couldn't ever imagine anybody being having thought that such random items could be used in such a fashion and he was starting to figure out just how much thought that the blonde put into every trap.

He recalled observing the reports of how even members of ANBU had fell into Naruto's traps when giving chase to the blonde for whatever mischief he had gotten himself into. While shinobi were trained to predict the most logical of traps, consisting mostly of cut a ninja wire to cause a string of events to occur, Naruto's used a much more wide array of both how the trap was triggered and the following scene to play out. With some more training in the department, Kakashi didn't doubt that Naruto's skill set could be used prominently in escort missions in order to protect high profile clients.

Part of him hadn't wanted to come watch his team partake in this little experiment of his but having his team eliminated during the first phase of the Chunin exams was a slight blow to his pride. Even though Gai hadn't seemingly rubbed it in his face as of yet, he knew that the overly eccentric Jonin would spend months on end proclaiming how his team was greater than Kakashi's. The sharingan wielding Jonin however didn't really feel intimidated by that, nor did he feel bad about the fact that both of his fellow first time senseis had managed to get their teams into the next round seemingly without hassle. It was more so the fact that if this hadn't been an exam but rather a test of survival there would be several more names on the memorial stone that he was responsible for.

As he watched Sasuke untangle himself from the mess he was in, Kakashi figured that he would have his team skip out on doing another 'D' ranked mission today and focus completely on training for the next few days. He would continue doing obscure training methods in the morning, perhaps tomorrow he would have Sakura doing the same thing as Naruto was today. That afternoon he figured that he would teach them the water walking exercise, frankly he was surprised that his team hadn't put two and two together when they had seen him fighting Zabuza atop the lake followed soon after by him teaching them how to use their chakra to climb trees. Finally he figured that he would work on their taijutsu, it wasn't very efficient of Naruto to be able to summon so many clones of himself but only using a very backstreet brawler fighting style. Kakashi sighed as he rubbed his one visible eye, noting how the training he was going to be doing would be reminiscent on the amount of training that Gai's students did. Frankly though, if it would save their lives he was willing to push them as far as they could go.

…

Sasuke grumbled as he removed himself from the mess that had been made, silently swearing that Naruto would pay a hundred fold for the damage that had been done. It wasn't as if the traps were physically painful, the humiliation however was unbearable. Sasuke didn't even know how the blonde had managed to get his hands on so many duck feathers and due to the prior trap that he had fallen into his clothing looked like it had rolled through an animal pen. A part of him felt like ditching his outfit and continuing on the day without any garments excluding his underwear, yet he wouldn't be surprised if that was what Naruto wanted him to do. A shudder ran down his spine as he imagined being trapped to a tree without his clothes on while fangirls fought one another in order to get closer to his near naked body.

A rustling in the nearby bushes alerted him of danger and he lifted his arms up in a defensive position, knowing that if this was another one of Naruto's traps there was no point getting into a fighting position but rather to prepare himself for the horrors ahead. Thankfully it wasn't such a disastrous event that played out but as Sakura fell into the opening Sasuke could see that he hadn't been the only one to have suffered throughout this training.

The pink haired girl was in a state of confusion for the most part as she looked up at Sasuke, thinking whether or not this was another one of the blonde haired boy's pranks but thankfully when he leant down to give her a hand back to her feet she knew that this was legitimate. "You look like crap," she commented as she pinched her nose, quickly noticing that there was also a disturbing aroma surrounding the Uchiha.

"Likewise," said Sasuke as he took the comment in stride. It seemed as if Naruto hadn't gone easy on either of them. While he was covered in duck feathers and had something vaguely smelling like animal feces keeping the feathers in place, Sakura had had most of her clothes ripped and looked as if she had been dumped in a muddy swamp. He figured that some of the scratches she had on her were from not avoiding the first phase of Naruto's traps but one thing he quickly took notice of was her hair. Whether intentionally or not, one of the traps the blonde had set up had sliced a solid chunk of her formerly lengthy off, leaving the remaining amount jagged and rough. Even though he knew that the girl was likely going to deal more damage to Naruto than himself due to this latest revelation, he couldn't help but notice that he didn't mind the way Sakura looked in this situation. With mud and dirt covering some of her features along with the unkempt hair it actually looked as if Sakura was somebody who took their training seriously. He had to remind himself however, that this was Sakura he was thinking about and quickly he pushed those thoughts back into the depths of his mind.

"So what now?" asked Sakura highly tempted to return to the river where they started and wash herself clean. "Even if we both travelled through the traps together it would still be risky."

"No kidding," said Sasuke as he cupped his chin in the palm of his hand. "We need a way to force him out of hiding, make him lower his guard and come out of hiding."

Several seconds passed before Sakura snapped her fingers. "I've got an idea."

…

Naruto grinned to himself as he finished setting up the final trap he had in store for whichever of the two poor souls wandered his way. The rotten eggs and expired milk in his refrigerator would finally go to use for something that wouldn't result in an upset stomach for him while the various broken pieces of crockery and cutlery he had lying around the house would work as impromptu projectiles. They weren't meant to hurt anyone, rather force them to the side where they would get bombarded by leaves and branches after being coated in sticky mud that didn't seem to be able to dry.

However, the snapping of a twig behind him immediately caught his attention. From his last sightings, Sakura was towards the west of the training field's center while Sasuke was towards the north. He was strategically positioned about two hundred metres into the south-east corner as that was probably where they'd be least likely to look, so it was a surprise to the young ninja to find another presence within the immediate vicinity. Rotating his head with a violent jerk as he stopped whatever he was plotting, he raised his arms in a defensive motion so as to protect himself from any attacks coming his way.

But nothing was coming his way. Rather, the figure was running away from him in sporadic movements. What really took him by shock was the figure in question, the skin hinted at it but the familiar jacket gave it away... it was Hinata.

'_What's Hinata doing here...?'' _Naruto thought in confusion but the answer became quite clear as a masked bandit burst into the clearing, advancing on the Hyuga heiress. To Naruto the situation was clear and he quickly leapt from his position in front of Hinata protectively, praying that he was good enough to defend his classmate.

He waited for the blow to come his way, but to his surprise it never did. Opening his eyes and blinking slightly in response, he was surprised to see the bandit had halted completely and was standing a stiff pose. As a questioning look overcame his features his knees suddenly buckled, courtesy of a kick from his behind, causing him to fall over onto the ground. While on the grassy floor Naruto could do nothing to avoid the wild haymaker which made solid contact with his head, almost knocking him out.

"Gotcha," Sakura's voice rang out from behind him, smoke making its way towards Naruto's eyes signifying that a henge had just been dispersed. With a more shocked than understanding look on his face, Naruto looked towards the masked bandit that had been giving chase to "Hinata" almost unsurprised to see Sasuke standing in his place.

The henge had done nothing to displace the duck feathers that had been stuck in the Uchiha's raven locks, a fact that Naruto was reminded of as the would-be avenger sent a murderous stare his way. Chuckling uneasily, Naruto stood up and turned around slightly to find that Sakura's clothes had seen better days... much better days. The dirt that didn't look as though it would wash out anytime soon would be the least of her worries as there were a multitude of rips and tears on her shirt, it was a miracle in itself that the thing hadn't fallen off yet.

"Uhhh... fancy that," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with a grin atop his face, hoping that his teammates wouldn't attempt to seek any form of revenge. "That was a pretty good idea, I didn't see it coming."

"I know," Sakura puffed out her chest slightly. "I came up with it after all."

The two shared a small chuckle and even Sasuke had a slight smile visible on his face before the violent swirling of a few leaves interrupted them. "Interesting, for a moment there I didn't think the two of you would manage to catch Naruto," said Kakashi as he lazily pushed up a strand of silver hair.

"It's surprising that he managed to evade us for as long as he did," admitted Sasuke. "It took us forever to even get the slightest hint of where he was hiding out."

"I wasn't hiding," interjected Naruto before continuing as the two Genin present gave him confused stares. "I was just setting up and fine tuning a whole bunch of traps."

"Speaking of which, where'd you manage to learn all that stuff Naruto?" Sakura's eyes glistened slightly at the prospect of learning something new, "the academy didn't teach us how to mix shuriken, kunai and _duck feathers_ in our traps."

"I didn't, I improvised," shrugged Naruto. "Making traps is pretty similar to setting up pranks so I just swapped a kunai for a chalk duster, a shuriken for a bucket of paint and all that."

"So anyway, I think that about sums up this page of today's training." Kakashi flipped a page in his book as he made his appearance, "Now onto the next one!"

The three Genin held back a collective groan. "Does this mean we waste more time playing hide and go seek?" asked Sasuke, bored.

"No, in fact we're doing something a little more fun than that. And by fun, I mean fun for me and frustrating and repetitive for you." Despite the fact that it sounded as though Kakashi was going to teach them something new, Naruto couldn't help but admire the subtle hint in the man's words that made it sound as though he couldn't care less about how much suffering they had to endure.

"Better get this over with then," Naruto grit his teeth as he looked towards his sensei.

"We're not going to be training here. You've got half an hour to get lunch before meeting me back at this point, and be prepared to get wet."

…

Neji stood guard, his Byakugan active and scanning every possible angle for any sign of danger that could be approaching. While he had taken arguably the most damage in the battle against the Sannin, he had decided to take first shift which allowed everybody else to rest up and tend to their wounds. While Lee had boldly proclaimed that he should have been the first watch, Neji had instructed him otherwise.

For the moment both Team Gai and Team Eight had called a temporary truce, neither of the two teams coping well after their fight with Orochimaru. Neji figured that the most likely scenario from here on out would be that both teams would coincide with one another in order to get the number of scrolls needed in order to pass to the next event. Part of him wanted to say that fate had decreed it this way but having watched Hinata step in front of him in such a way had torn at his definition of the word.

Throughout his life he had known it was fate which meant that as a member of the branch family he had to serve and protect those of the main family. Having watched the roles be reversed for just that smallest of moments had shaken him, Hinata had chosen her own path and now lay unconscious in the confined space with Tenten repetitively dabbing a wet cloth upon the Hyuga's brow. Neji couldn't help but be worried for his cousin, at the hands of Orochimaru he had thought that he would have died, that fate had only allowed him to proceed that far. In one moment all concept of fate was shattered and now he was struggling to figure out just what he believed in.

"Neji," said Lee from beside him as the green clad ninja pulled his leg warmers off, revealing the weights underneath. "It has been decided that we need to get our friends medical assistance, yourself included. Since we can't leave the forest until the end of the test, I'm going to go get us some extra scrolls so we can proceed to tower and have our friends looked at."

"Go," commanded Neji, as Lee took off his weights and placed them on the floor before vanishing in a burst of speed. Neji leant against the side of the tree, figuring that even if fate no longer had a hold over his life, it would never allow Lee to be anybody other than himself.

…

Sakura panted along the side of the riverbank, her chakra levels exhausted beyond belief. She had managed to grasp the concept of the exercise relatively quickly after only having fallen into the water once but she found that she couldn't stand on the water for an extended period of time. Naruto and Sasuke had fallen in a number of times, the blonde shouted at the last Uchiha that he would get this perfected before he did.

"Are you alright?" asked Kakashi who had taken this time to set up a small campfire as to dry off his pupils.

"Just a bit exhausted Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura as she gladly accepted the warmth from the fire.

"It's to be expected," said Kakashi. "Of the three of you, you have the lowest amount of chakra yet at the same time have the most skill in controlling it. Naruto is the opposite in where he has mountains of chakra but dismal control whilst Sasuke has moderate reserves and moderate control."

Sakura looked towards her teammates who were still struggling to find the right balance above the water surface. "So what's the final point?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," replied Kakashi, not quite understanding the question.

"Kakashi-sensei, I can understand that this exercise will become vital later on down the track but it only shows that we each have something to work on. If what you say is true and my chakra levels are small in comparison of my teammates, does that mean that I'm the weak link?"

"At the moment, yes," said Kakashi being perfectly blunt which aggravated his pupil somewhat. "However, this gives us something to work with at the same time."

"How so?" asked Sakura.

"It all depends on what division you want to set your mind towards."

"What do you mean by division?"

"Well, the three of you are a three man squad," said Kakashi breaking it down. "The three of you need to be able to adapt to every situation as a team. If you break down the specialties of everybody, you have Naruto who is primarily a brawler, he loves getting into close combat but that could be because he doesn't know of any long distance attacks. Sasuke is adept at both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, being able to fight from a range and close up."

"So you're saying that as the third member I have to be the ranged specialist?" asked Sakura.

"In a way, but not entirely true," said Kakashi. "You look at the the female member of the Sannin Tsunade, she was a medic and quite possibly the greatest medic who ever lived so her role was at the back of the three in order to heal her allies when they got wounded. She broke that mould however with her monstrous strength making her a vicious fighter at the same time with the ability to destroy buildings with a single punch."

"That's incredible," said Sakura in awe.

"What you have to decide Sakura, is how you can best help Naruto and Sasuke and show that you are by no means the weak link," said Kakashi with an eye smile. "I can't tell you what to specialize in, this is something you'll need to do yourself. If you'll excuse me I need to see how these two are going."

With that Kakashi left Sakura who turned her attention to the fire in front of her, the flames licking at her skin. She was surprised to see how much Kakashi was actually teaching them at the moment and part of her wanted it to remain this way for a while longer. She recalled that somewhere in the academy it was more than likely that when the team became Chunin in rank they would be split up to do different missions that required specialists for the assignment. At the moment however, she didn't want Team Seven to split up.

Sakura knew she needed to contribute to the team in a way that only she could. Like Kakashi had said, at the moment she was the one least likely to charge forward but she needed to be able to find some way to be able to contribute from behind. Either Genjutsu or Medical jutsu would be the prominent ways to go, yet at the moment she was aware her chakra levels were not high enough to maintain a number of Genjutsu nor did she know whether or not Kakashi had the control able to teach her medical jutsu. While she could use the next few months to improve on both her stamina and chakra levels, she needed to find a way in which to properly help out in the next mission.

Looking back on the 'C' rank mission that they had taken, Sakura recalled how both Naruto and Sasuke had been able to contribute but she had been able to do nothing, simply ensuring that she would be the last line of defense if both of them had fallen. Yet if they had fallen, then what chance did she have?

Getting to her feet, Sakura looked towards the river where she could see both Sasuke and Naruto standing atop the water and even though they were both slightly shaky, they seemed to have gotten the concept down quite quickly. Clenching her fist, she silently swore that she would do what she could and do it to the best of her abilities as a kunoichi of Konoha.

…

**Hope you enjoyed**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto.**

**This chapter was brought to you by Team Outback**

* * *

Naruto swore violently as he fell into the water for the umpteenth time. Though his clothes were beyond drenched, he wasn't even beginning to think of giving up the challenging exercise for the night. Not as long as Sasuke stood on the water almost flawlessly even as Kakashi created small ripples every few minutes that shook the two of them; the blond couldn't stand the thought of being bested by the Uchiha once more.

It wasn't really anything to do with who was stronger or better. It was his own pride at stake; over the time that they'd spent on top of the water he'd had an epiphany of sorts. Sasuke had beaten him every time they'd done something as a team, be it touching the bells at their first "team meeting," or more recently not being the cause that resulted in Team Seven being kicked out of the Chunin exams. Though he was convinced he hadn't cheated, he had still been _caught_ and that meant that seemingly he'd done something wrong somewhere. Neither Sasuke or Sakura had managed to make the same mistakes as he had.

Then there was the smaller things—on D-ranked missions Sasuke never failed to be the best teammate save for when Naruto needed to use his Shadow Clones to do a big job in a small amount of time, or how he'd managed to scale trees with his chakra before Naruto. The young Uzumaki had come to a crushing realisation that every Hokage had been the strongest ninja in the village—the village's undisputed champions during their era. He didn't know all that much about the Shodaime or the Nidaime, but the Yondaime had often been described as the closest thing to a Sage of Six Paths in the last forty years. If that didn't speak volumes, the Sandaime, all jokes about his age aside, was still respected as an incredibly strong leader and ninja even today. Naruto was no fool, he knew that though the old man didn't look it, but sixty years ago he would've been much more mobile and so strong that he could've probably put anyone to shame.

Then there was him... Naruto Uzumaki. Where did he stack up against _all that_? He hadn't been a ridiculous prodigy the second he'd been born out of his long-gone mother's womb, he'd almost _failed_ the academy and had just gotten kicked out of the first stage of the Chunin exams. What kind of a Hokage was so weak, so disrespected, that he could be kicked out of an esteemed exam for "cheating" when he hadn't been cheating? The only real special thing about him, he'd come to realise, was that he had an ancient demon stuck in his gut.

Sasuke on the other hand... he was almost the polar opposite of Naruto. He wasn't just held in high esteem by people, some immediately gave him their respect—and not because of his last name. It was the way he carried himself, the last Uchiha didn't go boldly proclaiming that he would keep on trying until he would drop. He would keep at it, giving it a hundred percent effort and gritting his teeth slightly when he didn't get the results he desired. And in the end he got them while Naruto was left to taste the bland lukewarm water of the hot spring.

"Hold on," Kakashi said suddenly, causing Naruto to almost fall into the deep pool again. "Neither of you have quite gotten the concept of water-walking down yet except for Sakura."

That was another thing, everyone seemed to get the whole chakra control thing but him. Sakura didn't just flourish in the field, she blossomed... it hadn't taken her more than ten minutes to cross the entire river. She wasn't even training at the moment, having apparently done enough water-walking to Kakashi's liking for the night, and was off getting them food.

"This is probably going to result in the both of you being submerged a couple hundred times more, but I want you to spar with each other. You both seem to learn best on the go," explained the masked man as he glanced from one Genin to the other. "Now as far as the ground rules go, if you're under the water for more than ten seconds you lose and you may not use any lethal attacks during the spar. Ninjutsu is allowed since it's your chakra we're trying to control. but try and not go all out with it, and you can also not hold the other person down under the water; you're only allowed to knock them down into it."

"So basically, we try and fight while keeping afloat the water?" Sasuke asked for clarification, Kakashi nodding in response. "Well this should be interesting."

"Now, any other questions?" asked Kakashi, a more serious tone than the unenthusiastic one they were used to coating his voice. "Good. Three, two, one, go!"

Naruto immediately threw his hands into a half-hearted block as Sasuke sprung forward with a wild fist, managing to prevent it from connecting with his stomach before attempting to shove the dark-haired boy away. However, a quick strike to Naruto's gut prevented the aspiring Hokage from succeeding in his endeavour, almost causing him to double over and grab his stomach in pain.

Shrugging the blow off, Naruto jabbed Sasuke's chest lightly with his right hand before snapping a knee up in an effort to strike him in the solar plexus. The strike was swiftly blocked before Sasuke and Naruto both jumped backwards to catch their breath. It would be at that moment that Kakashi decided to up the ante on their little game by sending a ripple through the water. Unlike the prior times though where the swell had only surged a few inches, this individual ripple could be classified as a wave.

Being closer to where Kakashi was standing, Sasuke reacted to the surge of water first, leaping over the wave and landing on the other side. As his chakra control wasn't spot on, his left leg dropped below the surface to his knee before he managed to correct himself.

As that occurred, Naruto saw what was going on and reacted in a similar manner as the wave came towards him. In a single bound he leapt over the wave; unlike Sasuke, however, he channeled nowhere near the right amount of chakra and instead of simply landing on top and losing his balance, Naruto found himself completely submerged underneath the water, left to quickly swim back towards the surface.

As his head broke through the water, his lungs were filled with sweet oxygen as he quickly worked out his bearings. Channeling chakra into his palms, he managed to push himself using the water as leverage, working out that from this angle if he were to charge chakra into his foot he could effectively take steps towards the surface.

This time, however, he pumped in too much chakra.

From his position, Sasuke watched as Naruto bounced and skipped across the water before coming to rest on the riverbed where Kakashi was. The black-haired Genin knew that it would only be a matter of seconds before Naruto was on top of the water and once more sparing against him; hardly anything ever seemed to get the blonde down. This was something that Sasuke somehow admired and he couldn't help but wonder how Naruto managed to keep such a good vibe about him despite being mistreated against.

His train of thought, however, came crashing to a halt as he had to defend and protect his face from being struck by Naruto's fist. While unpredictable, Naruto's attacks were slow and packed a lot of power behind them. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if like how Naruto had been sabotaged in the Chunin exams whether or not he had been sabotaged during the academy as well. He couldn't see why not, but like with the exam he had no proof to back his theory, other than the fact that Naruto didn't even seem to know the basic academy style of taijutsu.

Even though Kakashi had said that after Sakura had come back with food they would call it quits for the day, he would check whether or not Naruto wanted to go through some basic katas with him. While they would be simple ones, he knew that he hadn't quite mastered them either and going over the basics would help the grander techniques of his fighting style. He recalled the fight he had had with Rock Lee before the start of the first part of the Chunin exam and the defeat he had suffered. From that defeat he knew that he had to work on things such as speed, strength and endurance, which would all come in time provided he put the effort into it.

Landing a light blow to Naruto's shoulder, Sasuke had to lower his guard as Naruto's knee came up to strike at his stomach, and whilst he was able to block that blow, he took several quick jabs to the chest as a response. A small smile crossed his lips that went unseen before his passive face washed over his expression once more. Perhaps both of them could learn from one another later this afternoon.

As he delivered an uppercut to the blonde, Sasuke quickly recalled that they did have a third member of their team in the pink-haired genin. Between the three of them, she was the one who was physically the weakest and he was well aware that a chain was only as strong as it's weakest link. If the next Chunin exam they took required an all-rounded team effort, then he could not afford himself to be pulled back due to his teammate not being able to keep up. Even though she would see it as something else entirely, he would ask her to train with Naruto and himself after eating. While it wasn't the most direct path to getting revenge on his brother, this was the path he would need to take in order to proceed... it wasn't just about throwing his life away to avenge his family, it was about living it in such a way that they would also be proud of him.

Sasuke's foot dropped below the surface before he steadied himself, his chakra reserves starting to wear thin. Quickly readjusting himself, he knew that he had to finish this spar quickly otherwise he would soon collapse from chakra exhaustion and he was well aware he had nowhere near enough stamina to go on with Naruto; admittedly his teammate was like a chakra battery that never ran out of energy. Sasuke's eyes focused as he saw Naruto charging towards him and as the blonde got in range he shot his fist straight out towards Naruto's nose, yet the blow never struck home.

Showing that he was getting the grasp of the situation, Naruto had cut off all chakra to his feet for a split moment, gravity pushing Naruto down so that he dropped just below Sasuke's strike. With the Sharingan-wielding genin in range, Naruto pumped chakra back into his feet and pushed forward attempting to spear tackle his teammate. Once again, however, he put too much chakra into the soles of his feet and instead of hitting Sasuke with a normal tackle, the black-haired boy was struck with all of Naruto's weight crashing into his chest at an unregistered pace. Blood and bile escaped Sasuke's lips as the two of them came crashing down into the water, neither of them staying above the river as liquid flooded their mouths.

Both of the genin burst through surface of the water at the same time, one much more damaged than the other. Their eyes were shielded from the afternoon sunlight by Kakashi who was standing above them. "I think we're done with training for today," he said from behind his mask. Before Naruto could complain and say that he could keep going, Kakashi continued, "If you two keep at it then the food Sakura brought for you will have gone cold."

As if emphasising his point, Kakashi pointed to the riverbank where Sakura was waving at them with her spare hand, her other hand holding a plastic bag full of take-away food she had purchased for them to share. Deciding to save their chakra, both Sasuke and Naruto started kicking forward and swimming towards the shoreline where the campfire and hot food awaited them.

* * *

Sakura eyed the dripping wet forms of Naruto and Sasuke as they approached her, Kakashi lagging slightly behind them. They quickly closed the gaps between them, the promise of food seemingly much greater than their levels of exhaustion. Sakura's hold on the plastic bags failed to maintain their grip for long as both Sasuke and Naruto took a bag each and started plowing through the contents; thankfully for the pink-haired girl she had already put her portion to the side.

"Slow down you two, there's no rush," said Kakashi as he joined his students.

"We've gotta get our strength up so we can train some more," said Naruto in between mouthfuls. "Next exams we're going to show them that Team Seven is the best!"

"As I said, there's no rush," said Kakashi. "Skill simply doesn't appear in a matter of days. You start with the fundamentals and it can take weeks and even months to get specific techniques down pat."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, could you teach us the jutsu you used to make the waves in the river?" asked Naruto thinking of the possibilities.

"I could teach you the seals, but if your elemental affinity wasn't water based like my own, then you'll find the technique much harder to master then somebody with the right affinity."

Sasuke paused from his eating momentarily as he absorbed this information. He knew that with his Sharingan he could practically copy any and every technique used against him. That being said, if he didn't have the chakra capacity to use the techniques to their fullest potential, then they effectively became useless. Likewise, if he didn't have the elemental affinity for certain techniques then he'd have to look at alternates, which wouldn't drain him of so much chakra. Speaking of which. "Kakashi-sensei, how would one go about learning what elemental affinity they have?" asked Sasuke.

Kakashi eyed Sasuke at this point before his gaze passed over the rest of his team. Theoretically, fresh genin weren't meant to use elemental jutsu at this point other than simple "D" ranked techniques that anybody could use—despite the fact that none of the three seemed to know any at this point. However, considering that they were his students and thus his responsibility, he figured he was free to do as he wished. "Well, considering the three of you have just about mastered the water-walking exercise, I guess I can show you what elements you have tomorrow."

"Sweet... what's elemental affinity mean?" asked Naruto, the blonde having slept through the class which covered that in the academy.

Before Kakashi could respond, Sakura spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei, could I speak to you in private for a moment?" she asked.

"Sure," said the team leader. "Sasuke, could you explain elemental affinity to Naruto for me while I talk to Sakura?" Sasuke nodded in acceptance as Kakashi and Sakura walked away from the two other members of the team, finally coming to a stop out of hearing range. "What is it Sakura?"

"I figured out what I want to focus on," she said boldly, looking Kakashi in the eye.

"Did you see something in town which helped you decide?" asked Kakashi, wondering how this had quickly come about. Sakura's eyes focused as she told Kakashi what had happened in town.

* * *

_Sakura sighed as she walked along the dusty roads of Konoha, unsure of exactly where she was going. Though she had gotten the take-away she wasn't headed back to the training grounds right away, that much was certain. Her chakra had been depleted for the most bit and she was sure that the only thing that would help it recover would be a good night's sleep, so her plan was to waste as much time as she could without arousing suspicion. She had no doubt that if there was enough time, Kakashi wouldn't hesitate to make herself train until she couldn't stand... it was an odd change from the Kakashi that she had known before, and during the last few days she had often found herself questioning if it was a welcome one._

"I can't tell you what to specialize in, this is something you'll need to do yourself." _Kakashi's words reverberated through Sakura's mind. It wasn't often that it got locked in a state of deep thought like it had. What was she meant to do? Where was she meant to go in life? She had a plethora of questions, and according to Kakashi, she was the only one who could answer them._

_She sighed as she watched a couple of young girls run around carelessly; they were her age if not a little younger, but it didn't take much to realise that they weren't ninja. Of course they weren't. The way in which they composed themselves made it obvious: they looked happy and worry-free... instead of having to put on the little muscle that Sakura had needed to, they looked slim and pretty._

_The majority of the group had blonde hair, but Sakura's eye was drawn towards the one brunette in the group. Though her hair colour was the only distinguishable difference from the rest of them, she looked like the odd one out. Kind of like how Sakura was amongst others with her large forehead... the only thing was that the brown-haired girl didn't look out of place. She seemed as though she was having the time of her life despite the minor difference in hair colour from the rest of her friends, but then again brown was a much more common colour than _pink_. It wasn't a pleasant feeling knowing that you'd never stick in with the rest of the crowd no matter how hard you tried for something physical._

_Since she had been a child, Sakura hadn't really ever had any real friends because anyone she attempted to get close with laughed at her weird hair and her enormous forehead. Eventually they stopped with all that once they had matured a little bit, but Sakura found herself unable to make friends with people who had pointed at her and laughed in such a way. She supposed she was kind of unique with her odd hair colour, her large forehead and now even her hair itself was screwed up thanks to Naruto. Making a small mental note to get it cut properly so it didn't look anywhere near as disfigured as it currently did, she sighed slightly. It seemed as though she wasn't destined to live the life of a normal girl; instead of having slumber parties and chasing boys, it was looking as though she'd be infiltrating dangerous bases and locking horns with enemy shinobi who wanted nothing more than to leave her as a corpse on the battlefield._

_Passing by the Yamanaka flower shop, she paused to sniff at some lilac-coloured flowers that were on display. Sakura wasn't sure what the next part of the Chunin exam was and as such was unsure when she would likely see her blonde friend again. Smelling the flowers was one way to remember that even with the hectic life of a ninja, she needed to spend some time to herself and enjoy the times when she wasn't on missions._

_"Hey Sakura,"_ _said Inoichi as he stepped outside the store door wearing a dirt covered apron. "I thought you would have been Ibiki coming to pick up his order."_

_"These flowers are for Ibiki?" questioned Sakura, wondering what the proctor of the first exam would want with such delicate-looking flowers._

_"Partially for the flowers, but mostly for the roots,"_ _said Inoichi. "If you crush up the roots and mix them with hot water you get a mild poison that can cause a slight fever. From what I heard he's interrogating some guy, but doesn't want to go overboard so he's just using serums that aren't lethal. Yet knowing him he just plans on making the poison in front of the guy and saying that it's highly toxic and that if the antidote isn't given within a certain amount of time, then there is no guarantee that their life will be safe."_

_"That's...interesting," mused Sakura as she eyed the flowers. _"Is it just these flowers or are there other species in your shop that are more than just pretty plants?"

"Come in," _gestured Inoichi as he stepped out of the doorway. _"I'll teach you just why my shop is the most successful flower shop for the ninja community."

* * *

"...and that's pretty much it," concluded Sakura.

"I have to say, this wasn't the path I was expecting you to take, but it just goes to show that Naruto isn't the only one who can be unpredictable," said Kakashi smiling behind his mask. "Learning how to utilise poison will take you on a different path to your companions, but if this is how you believe you can be the most effective then I have nothing against it."

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura beaming slightly.

"I'll bring you a couple of books tomorrow that can help you get an idea on how to construct a successful poison," said Kakashi. "Research, proper measurements and correct ingredients will be necessary and I will help you as much as I can. Now go have your food with the other two before they devour your portion as well."

"Again, thank you," said Sakura with a light bow, turning and running towards the food as her stomach gave a small complaint from the lack of intake it had had.

Kakashi remained where he was as he observed his team and summarised what the most likely scenario would be. His three man squad consisted of a blonde that would be right in the thick of things; alongside him would be the best of his class who could also support with ranged jutsu; and then there was the female of the squad who would weaken the enemy with poison-laced weapons. A smirk went unnoticed across his face; Kurenai could have her tracking team and Asuma could have his capture-based squad, he was quite content to have the assault squad.

It didn't take long for Team Seven to finish their meal and even though Kakashi told them that they were done for the day, rather than running off back to the village, none of them moved from where they were. Curious, Kakashi asked what they were planning and they broke it down for him. Sakura was going to push herself water-walking again with one of Naruto's shadow clones for support while Sasuke felt that the "dobe" would only slow the team down if he didn't know any basic taijutsu katas to base his offence around. Kakashi couldn't really help but beam at his students; it seemed that the fun and games from the academy were finally over and things would be getting a little more serious now.

* * *

When Kurenai appeared in front of her team, she had been filled with praise for Team Eight having made it past the Forest of Death by the eve of the first night of the five day competition. While the team from Suna had already made it through, she had no problem with her team actually having made it through safely.

Yet "safely" was the optimal word.

Shino and Kiba were barely standing, much of their skin covered in cuts and bruises. Even Akamaru hadn't gotten through unscathed, the small dog licking at it's wounded paw. While many, the wounds that those three had gotten would heal in time and undoubted they would be ready for the next part of the exams.

Hinata, however...

Before Kurenai could even ask what had happened to the unconscious girl that was being supported by both of her teammates, a venomous aura seemed to envelop her as she started to stir. From her position, Kurenai could see a seal on the young girl's neck start to react, pulsate even as strange tattoo like markings began to spread forth like wildfire.

"Hinata, are you okay?" asked Kiba nervously as the Hyuga supported herself with her own two feet. Internally, Shino could feel his remaining insects react violently, each of them fearing the aura that Hinata was leaking. This in turn made the member of the Aburame clan nervous. Unlike Kiba, he had been holding onto the faintest glimmer of consciousness in the battle against Orochimaru and had watched as the member of the Sannin had bitten his teammate. Clearly now he understood that that bite was only the beginning of something much worse.

"Hinata," said Kurenai cautiously when the girl didn't respond to Kiba's question. Never before had she seen something like this occur and had no real idea how to act to such a thing.

"K-Kurenai-sensei... I feel... strange."

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto**

…

"Hinata, are you alright?" asked Kurenai scared to get close to the young Hyuga. Never before in her ninja career had she seen tattoos like the ones that were now covering the petite body, move and spread as these ones were. In fact she had never seen a tattoo move before in her life; what was wrong with this one? Not only was it moving around almost as though it had its own free will, it was starting to glow a searing hot red, almost looking as though it was burning her. For that matter, when had Hinata even gotten something as daring as the dancing mark on her skin?

"I'm not sure..." the girl muttered almost incomprehensibly. There was a dazed look in her eyes that sent alarm bells ringing in Kurenai's head, it wasn't the kind of look that someone who was trying to regain their bearing would have. Her pupils were slightly dilated and the Hyuga looked both ill and confused at the same time, something that Kurenai found far from reassuring.

"W-what's that g-glowing thing on your skin?" said Kiba slowly becoming more and more freaked out with every passing second. His teammate in the Aburame heir was silent on the matter despite being just as frightened for Hinata's safety, the eyes behind his sunglasses that normally would be attempting to analyse the situation wide in concern.

Before anybody else could reply, the ink covering Hinata ceased moving and fixed itself on singular spots. As it froze, the scorching returned to a deep faded black that clearly contrasted with Hinata's pale skin. Now that they weren't twisting around violently, one could almost mistake the ink pattern for being beautiful in design. Each little insignia looked like a falling leaf, as if a portrait of an autumn day had been painted upon Hinata's body.

Almost instinctively, Hinata's right hand snapped up to the ink-pattern on her skin as she let out a little yelp of pain. Within seconds Kiba, who had been cautiously been backing away from his female teammate, was at her side; concern clearly etched on his face.

"H-Hinata... you're starting to scare me," Kiba's attempt to conceal his worried voice went unnoticed by those around him. Though the Hyuga had moved for a brief second, she had now returned to her former dazed like state. There was something wrong with her body language, something about the charisma that surrounded her that told the other members of Team 8 that their youngest teammate was not alright.

This theory was confirmed when Hinata's slightly dilated pupils rolled to the back of her head and the girl slumped into the Inuzuka's shaking arms.

…

"...and begin!" stated Kakashi signalling for two of his three students to start the day's training. In a blur they leapt forward in an attempt to find their designated target. Like the previous day, it was two of his pupils attempting to find the third but unlike the past training exercise this one was being held in a different sort of area.

"How are we meant to find Sakura all across Konoha, she could be anywhere?" complained Naruto as he and Sasuke stood atop a building near the centre of town. Beneath them people went about their day to day business without noticing the presence of the two Genin looking over them.

"She's smart," acknowledged Sasuke. "She won't be isolating herself to a single spot but rather blending in with the crowd so if we miss her first time we'll have to backtrack."

"How hard could it be to miss her hair? I mean it kind of sticks out if you know what I mean," said Naruto with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Dobe, she'll be using a henge, disguising herself," said Sasuke as if talking to a child.

"Ohhh," said Naruto as he finally started to realise how difficult this task was going to be.

"That being said, she wouldn't be able to hold on to a henge forever, her chakra will have to run out at some stage."

"And that's when we'll get her," mused Naruto as he raised a hand to his chin.

"By then it might be too late," said Sasuke as he eyed his surroundings. "Just the two of us won't be able to cover enough ground."

"Pfft, I can cover everywhere without any problem," said Naruto as he put his hands into his patented seal. In a burst of smoke, three dozen copies of Naruto came into existence.

"Leave it to us," they said as a cohesive unit before leaping off in multiple directions.

"You know that's not going to work," said Sasuke with a huff.

"We don't need it to," said Naruto with a cheeky grin that got Sasuke's attention. "All we need is for Sakura to see one clone and know that we've already started looking for her. If she sees a clone, like you said, she's going to backtrack and head in the direction away from where the clone was heading."

Sasuke was momentarily puzzled for a second, not truly believing what had come out of the blonde's mouth. "How did you come up with something like that?" asked Sasuke wondering how Naruto had had such a plausible idea.

"It's like when we get sent out to get Tora," said Naruto remembering the first time he and his team had been sent to get the ferocious cat. "The first part of the strategy is always a diversion, pushing the target towards where the main force is located. I'm using the same concept here by having her come to us instead of us going to her."

"Alright then, but how will we know which one will be her?" asked Sasuke picking at a major flaw in Naruto's plan. The blonde raised his finger to answer but paused as he realised that he hadn't thought this far ahead. "Okay, I guess this is where I contribute to this plan. Sakura will always be on the lookout for us and if she spots us, will move in the other direction with the possibility that we'll miss her. Therefore like her we have to hide as one of the crowd."

"So we're going to henge into other people in order to catch someone who's using a henge," said Naruto slamming his fist into his opposing palm.

"It's not going to be that simple Dobe," said Sasuke. "She won't run away because she knows that we may be nearby but if we can't figure out which one is her then we'll never find her."

"So what are we looking for then?" asked Naruto.

"Look for similar mannerisms," explained Sasuke. "Even though we got taught how to construct a henge at the academy we never really got taught how to use a simple technique to our advantage. The key here is that we know that our target has had training and since she will be on the lookout for us she'll be looking around for any sign of us."

"But she won't find us because we'll be under a henge," declared Naruto boldly.

"See Dobe, even you can learn," said Sasuke jokingly which only infuriated Naruto but the blonde didn't say anything as the member of the Uchiha clan performed a henge, his physical shape and structure changing to take on the appearance of a forty year old man.

A second later Naruto performed the same technique as his appearance altered as well. As funny as it would have been to have performed the Oiroke no Jutsu, Naruto knew that somewhere out there was potentially Kakashi watching them and evaluating how well they performed in this task. As such, he simply opted to change into a younger form of himself but was wise enough to change his hair to a light brown as to not get spotted so easily.

"Good enough?" asked Naruto, his voice squeaking ever so slightly.

"Guess so," said Sasuke with a shrug before pointing down into the street. "I'm going to go stakeout that point over there, it looks like it'll give enough visual coverage."

"I'll go play with those kids over there," said Naruto pointing down to where a couple of children were playing in the street. Sasuke however gave him a look of intrigue. "What, if a kid isn't playing it becomes obvious that they aren't a kid."

While Sasuke could think of a handful of reasons to argue against something like that he decided to let it go for now. "Alright, if we haven't found her in an hour meet up and we'll make another plan."

"Got it," said Naruto as both he and Sasuke leapt off towards different points where they could scale down to ground level without being seen.

From his position, Kakashi watched his pupils in action and couldn't help but be impressed with their strategy, but knew that no matter what they tried they wouldn't be able to find Sakura, the reason being that the pink haired girl was hiding next to him watching the action play out.

...

"Don't you think this is a bit mean?" asked Sakura.

"Not really," said Kakashi as he pulled out his book and began to read. "Like with the mission where we encountered Zabuza, we were misinformed about the potential danger of the mission. Likewise, the task that Naruto and Sasuke have been asked to do they have been misinformed but don't realise it yet. They've gone about things as they would if they were looking for their target but there is no target for them to find."

"Then why get them to do this at all?" asked Sakura as she got comfortable.

"Put it this way," said Kakashi as he broke it down for his student. "If a group of shinobi have been sent out on a mission to free several hostages from a bandit camp containing twenty bandits, what do they expect to find in the mission?"

"Twenty bandits along with the hostages?" answered Sakura, unsure whether or not this was a trick question.

"Yes, that's what they expect to find," said Kakashi. "However, if one thing got misinterpreted, one single detail, the entire operation could be more dangerous than beneficial. For example, if a single digit was left out there could be two hundred opponents instead of twenty. Even for skilled shinobi, taking on two hundred enemies with only yourself and a few teammates is not a situation you want to be in. Another piece of misinformation could be that leading the bandits could be a 'B' ranked missing nin and immediately the mission becomes more dangerous once again."

"So by making those two go on a wild goose chase you're telling them that every mission has the potential to be different to what is explained to them," analyzed Sakura.

"Indeed, correct information is often hard to come by and hence we have to learn to adapt and be prepared for anything that comes our way," explained Kakashi.

"So how long are you going to leave them in the street?" asked Sakura, thriving in the discussion of tactics and the like.

"Give them a couple hours, see if they think of any other ways to flush 'you' out," said Kakashi as he turned a page in his book.

"Well could we go to the training ground and have a little one on one time?" asked Sakura, wondering whether or not she could do something constructive with their time.

"We could but I want you to save your energy for later," said Kakashi. As Sakura seemed to deflate slightly at the comment Kakashi reached into his pouch once again and pulled out another book, handing this one to his pupil. "This should provide enough entertainment for a while."

Looking at the book, Sakura was thankful that it wasn't more of the smut that her sensei read but rather a basic guide to poisons. Silently, she opened up the book and began reading at the content inside. Even though it wasn't training as such she knew that this would undoubtedly help her in the long run.

…

"Alright, I want the two of you to tell me exactly what happened in there," said Kurenai menacingly as she placed her hands on her hips. Though her voice was strong and firm, there was a slightly soft-spoken tone to it so as to not disturb the sleeping heiress beside her.

"... W-well, well we didn't manage to get a scroll at first but a couple hours after noon we finally managed to snatch one from another team." Kiba said somewhat shamefully, knowing that if it hadn't been for his inability to get the complimentary scroll to their Heaven one earlier, they might have been able to get out of the whole place a lot earlier. He looked to Shino for a bit of support but the boy was silent, likely in deep thought as he had been for the past few days.

"So we set up camp early so that we could get something to eat and have a bit of time to hone our defences and set up traps," he continued. "I went out to go and hunt and after about an hour, I managed to catch a couple of deer so I made my way back to camp. But as soon as I sat down to catch my breath, I heard a _gigantic_ explosion."

"It probably makes sense that some of the Genin would have explosives on them," interjected Kurenai. "So I take it that you went to investigate?"

"The three of us did... we all heard it and there was this psycho old dude cutting up a Genin team from Suna. He'd already killed them but he was slicing them up with this sword of his and cackling madly-"

"And Kiba charged in towards the unidentified assailant of the Suna team, only to be swatted away like a mere fly seconds later. Quickly identifying the target as one that had formidable strength, I drew back however the pale-skinned man recognised my attempts to tactically retreat and quickly knocked me to the ground." Shino said emotionlessly, filling in for Kiba.

"Hinata managed to get a quick strike on him but he knocked her down too, so me and Akamaru attacked him except he did some weird flip thing and smashed us both into the ground. Akamaru even sprained a paw from the force of the blow!" Kiba picked up again, throwing his hands up in emphasis of the incredible damage that the man managed to easily inflict.

"It repeated like this for awhile, no matter what we attempted we were unable to deal any damage to him," said Shino as his gaze lowered. "It was clear that he was merely toying with us but when another team from Konoha came to our aid we gathered some hope in the thought that we could get through this. Sadly though, that wasn't the case."

"I can't really add much more here," said Kiba sheepishly. "This guy kinda knocked me out cold."

Kurenai merely rubbed her forehead in mild irritation before looking towards Shino. "Continue."

"Even when this team came to our aid we were still no match," continued Shino. "Part of this team was one Hyuga Neji, Hinata's older cousin. Of the nine of us, he was the one who fought the longest and hardest yet he too fell in battle. Before any more could be done to him, Hinata stepped forward and stood in front of Neji's body protectively, not wanting any more damage to befall her family. This man, I don't really know how he took to such an act but he began raining kunai strikes down across her body before seemingly becoming bored and biting her on the neck."

"And that's where this came from," said Kurenai pointing at the mark upon Hinata's neck.

"It would appear so," said Shino stoically.

"I'd imagine you then managed to get your hands on another scroll and got here as fast as you could," said Kurenai sighing as Shino gave a curt nod. "You did well and I must inform the Hokage that there is somebody in this exam who shouldn't be here."

"He's already been informed," said a new voice from the doorway which got the three of them to turn their heads, finding the proctor of the second exam standing there. "I guess I should congratulate you brats on surviving against Orochimaru but I don't really think it'd do anything to lighten the mood."

"You mean that my students fought against one of the Sannin?" exclaimed Kurenai.

"I wouldn't call it a fight, rather they got through an onslaught with their lives still intact," said Anko as she got closer to the group, kneeling next to Hinata.

"So then do you know what that guy did to Hinata?" asked Kiba, realising that the proctor appeared to have some kind of knowledge about the situation.

Rather than answering straight off in words Anko pulled down her jacket slightly to reveal the identical seal planted upon her neck. "A long time ago he did the same thing to me," she explained. "The odds on having her survive this long was one in ten so she's incredibly lucky. That being said we need to do something to suppress that seal."

"A seal on top of a seal?" suggested Kurenai, not too shocked by the revelation as she had already put two and two together when Anko had mentioned their assailant had been _the_ Orochimaru.

"Can someone please explain to me what's going on?" asked Kiba.

"That seal on her neck will corrode her mind," explained Anko. "Even with the same suppressant seal that surrounds mine there will still be a slight influence over her behaviour and demeanour."

"I take it there is a catch," stated Shino, knowing that if such a seal existed then there would be no point in having the original seal in the first place.

"The seal uses your own willpower as it's central source," continued Anko as she nodded slightly. "If your will begins to fade then it will strike out at you, slowly making it stronger as if you are getting drunk off the power and only seek more and more."

"So every time she uses it we have to be there to help her," declared Kiba with a slight grin, throwing his hands behind his head. "That's easy!"

"Firstly, I would suggest that she never attempt to use the seal-even if it were a matter of life and death. Secondly, it won't be that easy as it is directly linked to her chakra," stated Anko. "Even using that clan ability of hers gives the chance that the seal will break free. Also she's a timid girl like no other, as such I fear that the potential to tap into more strength may be her only resource."

"We won't let that happen!" shouted Kiba.

"You may not get a choice," said Anko solemnly, upset that she had been unable to prevent such a curse from befalling the young girl. She then turned her attention to Kurenai. "Help me take her to where the Hokage is, he'll put the seal on her. And trust me, it'll be better if we do it while she's still unconscious."

"Why do you need to do it while she's out cold?" asked Kiba, worried about what the odd team mate would do to his team mate. If there was anything the little clash with Orochimaru taught him, it was to be weary of people you didn't know.

"You don't want to know," said Anko as Kurenai cradled Hinata in her arms and the two older shinobi left Kiba and Shino alone in the room with only the sleeping Akamaru for company.

"Shino," said Kiba as his teeth grinded against one another. "We're going to get stronger to be able to protect Hinata."

"Agreed, that seems the most logical path to take," stated Shino.

"We've still got three days until this part of the exam is over."

"So effectively we have two days of solid training we can perform before having a rest day so that we can be prepared for the next event," concluded Shino.

"Then what're we waiting for?" questioned Kiba as he leapt to his feet, only to regret it several seconds later as his wounds started to ache once more.

"I believe a resting for the rest of the day would be most beneficial," said Shino as he got to his feet, albeit much slower than Kiba had. "We will begin training tomorrow."

"Yea, that works to," said Kiba as he picked up the sleeping Akamaru. In silence, the two of them walked through the corridors towards the bedrooms with the intent of getting as much rest as their bodies needed before pushing them as hard as they could. Even though it was only early afternoon, there was no point in pushing themselves harder if the end result would have negative consequences.

…

"That one has to be her!" Naruto exclaimed in a harsh whisper as the teenage girl next to him simply shook her head. He had long since given up the guise of the little boy, having cycled through multiple ones and was in the form of a middle-aged man at the moment. Sasuke had too, and when he'd henged into the female form that he was in right now Naruto had been unable to hold the giggle that escaped his mouth in. Sasuke looked like a mix between his Oiroke No Jutsu and Sakura, however with Sasuke's hair colour.

"No... there's no way that could be her," Sasuke stated. "You can tell by the way that they play with their hair."

"Damn it, which one is it then, we've been looking for ages!"

"You sure you're clones scared her off into this direction?" Sasuke sighed, as she looked around for the the girl in question.

"Well she's not going to follow them is she!"

As the two of them continued on people in the street couldn't help but be a little concerned at a teenage girl and an old man yelling at one another. It didn't look like they were related so really all manner of possibilities were going through their heads, many of which concluded with the fact that the man should be sent to prison.

From up in their hiding position, Sakura and Kakashi really didn't pay too much attention to the antics of Naruto and Sasuke, long since having subsided themselves within the contexts of their respective books.

…

Kiba rocked his sleeping companion slowly in his hands, admiring the shiny coat it had begun to develop. While its body was littered in bruises and cuts it had long since gone to sleep, something that Kiba didn't expect to be getting much of that night. He was too worried for to not stay up through the night fretting through the numerous possibilities that he and his friends could branch out into from where they were.

He and Shino were the least worrying... while with Hinata, he couldn't help but feel concerned. He didn't know what they were going to do to her other than slam some seal on top of the the strange mark that the man, apparently Orochimaru, had left on her neck.

"_You don't want to know..."_ Anko's words rang through his head eerily, though he was normally carefree those simple words had managed to put him off. Chills were still going down his back... but what had she meant by it? The proctor was certainly a weird one but that was just worrying. What were they going to do that was so bad, so bad that he didn't _want_ to know or was he on a complete tangent to what was actually going on?

Looking out the window he contemplated the task ahead of him alongside his team. Undoubtedly, he would have to be the one to pull his finger out most of all. Even though he bragged constantly he knew that out of him and his two teammates he was the bottom rung on the ladder. After what had happened he'd put himself above Hinata but doing so openly just felt wrong.

Shaking his head to get these thoughts out of his system, Kiba looked out the window as he gently rubbed behind Akamaru's ears. Even though he and Shino had claimed that they would need to grow in strength to be able to protect Hinata they couldn't afford to leave her behind. Kiba was well aware of the confidence issues that the Hyuga had and knew that if he and Shino soared past her in strength and ability she would be mentally devastated which in turn could have disastrous effect.

As he watched the sun begin to set over the canopy of the trees, a silent declaration was made as he declared that he would find some way to help his teammate in any way that he could.

…

"That was mean Kakashi-sensei," complained Naruto as they stood out in the middle of the training ground. With the day just about over the leader of Team Seven had decided that they'd gone on long enough after several shinobi had been summoned by the citizens to break up a fight that the two had gotten in to.

"And what did we learn?" asked Kakashi who had been glad that the collateral damage in the street hadn't been as high as he had expected when the two had started to duke it out. Somehow he figured that it was still due to the fact that the two were still under the guise of a henge and even though the fight was a mix of half play, half seriousness, the two of them had maintained their disguise through it all. Perhaps there was hope for them to go undercover yet.

"To check to see if the source of information is viable," stated Sasuke.

"That you're a dick Kakashi-sensei," chimed in Naruto.

"It seems you two have gotten the gist of it," said Kakashi not really surprised with the answers that they had given. "While you two have apparently only learnt the one thing from the day, Sakura here completed a book on basic poisons."

"Poison?" repeated Sasuke, slightly intrigued.

"Sakura-chan, you're so cool!" claimed Naruto.

"With the fact that we've only got an hour at most of sunlight remaining, I've decided to look into alternate ways in which we can continue to grow as a unit. Every morning we'll continue with these random assignments as they are helping grow teamwork and also helping shape your future as ninja of the leaf. At midday the assignment will come to a close and then we will plow through a 'D' ranked mission," stated Kakashi, making their weekly itinerary.

"Why do we have to do 'D' rank instead of 'C' rank?" questioned Naruto aggressively.

"Because, 'D' ranked missions can be done quickly and thus give us more time to train," said Kakashi before continuing on with what he had been saying. "Once we've done the mission we'll have some lunch and then come out to one of these training grounds and do some solid training both in the lesson of the day along with basics."

"Don't we already know the basics?" asked Sasuke wondering whether or not his process was going to be slowed down.

"Well, Sakura here will be able to learn the basics in constructing poison," stated Kakashi pointed at the pink haired girl who had been silent up to this point, the procedure for the weeks ahead already having been explained to her up whilst she and Kakashi had been hiding. "Along with that, all three of you will be practising a jutsu from one of these five scrolls."

As he said it, Kakashi pulled five small scrolls out from a back pocket, placing them on the ground. "Sweet, new jutsu!" exclaimed Naruto. "Is each one some super powerful jutsu?"

"No," said Kakashi blandly which silenced the blonde. "Each one of these is an elemental based jutsu, the most basic for each affinity that Konoha possesses."

"I take it back about you being a dick Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto before he reached for one of the scrolls only for his hand to get slapped away.

"First, we have to find out what element all three of you have," said Kakashi as he reached once more into his back pocket, this time pulling out three small pieces of paper. "This paper reacts with small amounts of chakra and allows you to work out which element you're more suited towards. If it wrinkles then you've got a lightning affinity. It'll tear in half for wind. Burn for fire. Become soggy with water. And crumble with earth."

"So we just have to run our chakra through this paper and we'll learn what element we've got an affinity for?" said Sakura as she took one of the offered slips.

"Exactly," said Kakashi as both Naruto and Sasuke took a slip. "Essentially for now we're going to learn what central affinity you have but that in itself does not mean that it'll be the only lot of jutsu you will be using."

"How many elements can you use?" asked Sasuke, wanting to know just what kind of strength Kakashi truly had.

"Three," answered Kakashi. "Earth, Water and Lightning, the third of which I have an affinity for."

"You're so cool Kakashi sensei!" exclaimed Naruto.

"By the time most Konoha ninja reach Jonin they are already able to use two different kinds of elemental jutsu, most choose not to however."

"Why's that?" asked Sakura.

"Most ninja only use their affinity on the battlefield as they are predominantly their strongest attacks," explained Kakashi. "In a life or death situation you rarely want to be using moves that drain your chakra quicker. For you especially Sakura, since you have the smallest chakra reserve out of the three of you, you need to be careful with the amount of chakra you use with each technique."

"Okay," said Sakura slowly, realising that she'd need to find some way to overcome the fact she had such a small chakra reserve.

"Now, while we still have a little bit of sunlight," said Kakashi as he noted the amount of time that had been wasted explaining the concepts, "let's see what element each of you have." As one, the three genin started channeling their chakra into their hands and in doing so into the paper they were holding. The results were almost instantaneous as several different things occured at once. "Naruto, you're wind natured."

"Is that good?" asked Naruto but he was ignored momentarily as Kakashi turned his attention to the Uchiha.

"Lightning affinity like myself," he commented. Sasuke grumbled a bit at this but internally knew that this information would undoubtedly help him in the long run.

Finally Kakashi's attention turned to Sakura but unlike the others there was no paper remaining in her hand but rather a small pile of hot ash. "Finally we have a fire wielder."

"Wind, fire and lightning," said Naruto as he rounded off the three genin.

"Guess I can take these two scrolls back," said Kakashi as he put away the Earth and Water jutsu containing scrolls. Picking up the paper containing the fire jutsu he handed it to Sakura. "'Katon: Kasai Nagare' for you."

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura with a bow.

"'Futon: Kaze no Otakebi' for Naruto," said Kakashi as he handed the scroll to the blonde.

"Finally a jutsu!" shouted Naruto in success.

"And for Sasuke, we have 'Raiton: Hekireki,'" concluded Kakashi as he handed out the final scroll. "As I said all of these jutsu are relatively weak but they will help you understand the fundamentals of your elemental affinity. You have one week to have your jutsu good enough to be used when sparring."

"Yes sensei," the three of them stated in unison before Kakashi dismissed them as the first stars began to appear in the sky as the last few rays of sunlight trickled over the trees.

…

_Running through the forest, Hinata looked over her shoulder at the endless darkness that was catching up to her. Within there she could see the bottomless pits of torment waiting to sink their claws into her flesh. Even though she sprinted as fast as she could she couldn't get away as everything was swallowed within the darkness to never see the light of day once more._

_A sharp pain radiated through her ankle as her foot snagged a tree root and she fell to the ground. Desperately she tried to get back to her feet but she was too late as the darkness swallowed her. Fumbling around, the light around her faded as she flailed in the pitch black._

"_You are weak," cackled a menacing voice forcing Hinata to turn in the direction only to see the faintest glint of a katana moments before it speared through her chest._

Hinata awoke with a start, bullets of sweat pouring from her brow as her eyes adjusted to the little light in the room. Before she could figure out where she was a pulsating pain radiated from her neck and she lifted a hand to it and began applying pressure but to no effect. The searing pain seemed to get worse and worse with each passing moment. Alone in the darkness, there was nobody to help Hinata as the pain continued to assault her, the suffering only becoming worse with every passing minute.

…

**Jutsu List**

**Kaze no Otakebi : Roar of the Wind**

**Kasai Nagare : Stream of Fire**

**Hekireki : Thunderclap**

**Hope you enjoyed**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto.**

…

Kiba took a heavy laboured breath as he smashed a fist into Shino's head. The Aburame attempted to dodge but was no match for the swift change of course that Kiba's fist took as it implanted itself squarely in the bug boy's stomach.

They had been at it for the better part of the day, figuring that it was best to get the majority of their 'training' done now so as to avoid injuring each other when the next part of the exams were closer. Being only four days away, if Kiba's count was correct, they couldn't afford to waste anytime... especially when Hinata was in the state that she was.

They had heard back from Kurenai a little while back, that Hinata's sealing had gone successfully and that the girl had been placed in her own room-close to theirs but still a different one just in case the girl began screaming again. That particular bit had been extremely unnerving... Hinata, screaming?

In essence, the Hyuga was a more flustered, slightly emotional, feminine version of Shino. She was too shy or embarrassed to be overly emotional yet at the same time she was hardly as withdrawn as he was. But still, Hinata didn't scream. She didn't shout either, so the fact that this sealing process had made her do so meant that yet another thing was his fault. All because he was too weak...

Despite what others thought, Kiba was no fool. He knew that Orochimaru's fangs could have just as easily been laced with venom as opposed to the creepy sealing thing, in the ten minutes it had taken for the rest of them to finally get to their feet, Hinata could have easily fallen into cardiac arrest or something even worse. He knew and Shino clearly did too, there was a certain strength behind his punches that Kiba hadn't seen ever before.

It was as if it was fueled by the frustration of the events that had taken place in the last two days, it was rare to see the alienated boy as emotional.

Kiba snapped his head to the right, his senses all turned on since he was in the middle of an intensive fight, to hear Akamaru's barking. It wasn't the happy or relaxed barking that Kiba was accustomed to, it was more one that was warning him of something. Not alarmed but slightly on edge. Shino paused his assault too, probably somewhat curious as he cocked his head in Akamaru's direction.

Following Akamaru's gaze, Kiba blinked a few times in rapid succession at the form in front of him. His jaw fell open in surprise, it wasn't that he didn't want to see Hinata standing boldly a few metres to the right of him, rather that he had expected the girl to be sound asleep.

"H-Hinata?" stuttered Kiba, unable to believe what his eyes were telling him. "W-what're you doing here?"

"Fight me," she whispered quietly, almost like a ghost.

"W-what?" asked Kiba once again as he noticed Shino tense beside him.

"I said... fight me!" snapped Hinata with a firmness about her that Kiba had never before witnessed.

"F-fight you?" Kiba asked once again, unbelievingly as he looked at Hinata's body from top to bottom. The bags under her eyes clearly contrasted her pale skin, allowing Kiba to quickly realise that she must've not gotten much sleep. "I can't! You're still not fit to do anything yet!"

At this, the girl grit her teeth in anger. Watching with fearful yet curious eyes, Kiba's heart almost skipped a beat as a shrouded aura began to overcome the girl as she clenched her fists with a grunt. Akamaru's loud barking fell on deaf ears as the two male Genin slowly backed away, scared of the normally timid girl.

With another grunt, the girl had her Byakugan activated, the dark aura subsiding as strange black marks began to race all around her skin. A slightly twisted smirk on her face, Hinata slowly began to advance towards Kiba and Shino; also ignoring the panicked barks of Kiba's alarmed canine companion. "Fight me or I'll fight you, whether you like it or not!"

"T-that would be unwise," Shino cleared his throat. "Hinata, I beg you to reconsider, attempting to fight anyone while you're still in your condition would surely be detrimental."

The girl ignored the normally-collected boy's pleas as she advanced towards him, however Kiba's eyes weren't drawn towards her. Instead they were wide and large as they watched Akamaru make a wild charge for the young Hyuga, intent on biting off a piece of her skin in order to save his master from the threat in front of him.

As Akamaru jumped in the air, he was met with a swift jyuken strike to his chest, instantly causing him to crumble onto the ground as it's rough barking turned into slow whimpering. A few seconds later, the black marks on Hinata's body receded as she joined her teammate's injured dog, cradling the pup in her arms. "What... have I done?"

…

"So how are we meant to go about this again?" questioned Naruto as he eyed Kakashi, the Jounin too occupied with his book to bother responding.

"Just follow the instructions on the scrolls, Naruto... it's not that hard," said Sakura.

"I don't get it though, do we follow the hand seals from left to right or up to down or-"

"You start from the right side of the scroll and go down like any normal scroll dobe," Sasuke sighed, not in the mood to deal with Naruto's idiocy.

"And what about chakra, how much chakra do we pump into the technique?" Naruto asked his teammates.

"Didn't you listen to this stuff at the academy?" asked Sakura wearily, "It's why learning techniques isn't as easy as just catching the hand seals, since everyone has different coils that respond differently each time you push out chakra with a hand seal you need to find the right amount for you. Some people just can't get certain techniques to work for them while others can take years to master one."

"So what happens if I just pump a shit load of chakra into a technique, wouldn't that make it stronger?"

"Yes and no," Sakura said almost as though she were a lecturer. "More chakra will make it more potent but at the same time, it becomes more unstable. And hand seals can only stabilise your chakra so much before it blows up in your face."

"So in other words that chakra control crap is important?" Naruto's eyes squinted as Sakura firmly nodded her head, "That sucks... I'm really bad at it. But I guess it's not that bad because everyone has to go through the same pro-"

"Except for me," Sasuke interjected smugly. "The Sharingan automatically tells my coils how much chakra to produce when replicating a technique, provided I've seen it before hand."

"Yes," Kakashi shut his book with a thud before he pulled his headband up, revealing a dark, glowing-red eye, "it does. The Sharingan is an excellent shortcut in battle, it allows you to flip techniques on opponents and learn thousands of jutsu as I myself have done. However it's a shortcut and the long way is always more beneficial in the long run... there's a secret to this Dojutsu."

"A secret?" Sasuke's eyes widened as the three Genin almost collectively gasped.

"It doesn't master the technique for you. In order to not spill a lot of chakra and maximize its potency while keeping it at a high level of stability, you need to practice. And practice hard. The way of the ninja is not an easy one; things will blow up in your face, as Sakura said, but a true ninja does not let scars deter him."

"Where are your scars then, Kakashi-sensei?" questioned Naruto, avidly listening to his the man's teachings. They were as valuable as they were rare.

"Mine?" Kakashi chuckled slightly, "A few of them are visible physically. You can sometimes see the ones on my face, but the biggest type of scarring a ninja is prone to; the type of scarring I most heavily suffer from is mental scarring. Emotional scarring, the wounds that never fade... the ones the average bystander can't see. Ninjas are those who stand up despite them, that is what separates ninja from men."

"Emotional scarring..." Sakura trailed of curiously, "like the kind where a loved one stops loving you? Did your girlfriend dump you or something once?"

"She's dead," stated Kakashi with all the bluntness of a bullet. "My greatest friend died as I watched, unable to help; my teacher sacrificed his life for thousands of people without once hesitating and my father committed suicide when I was a boy."

"That's a nice sob story," remarked Sasuke coldy. "But none of you know what it's like to have people ripped away from you, almost everyone you ever knew, cut down mercilessly by the person you most looked up to."

"S-Sasuke..." Sakura bit her lip as her blood ran cold. Was this why he was so bitter to everyone, was this the reason why Kakashi always seemed so aloof, so disturbed?

"Well I've never really had a best friend," said Naruto almost sadly, "I don't know the pain of losing someone because I've not been all that close to anyone. But I guess that's my story, the entire village spits upon me for being something I never asked to be in the first place."

'_Is this somehow related to why he was kicked out of the Chunin exams?'_ thought Sakura, a frown appearing upon her face. She didn't have a sad story, the most horrible day of her life had been when her pet bunny had passed away when she was eight years old. Her parents loved her and she loved them, and they lived happily in a wealthy middle-house. Did that make her unsuitable ninja material?

"You guys..." Sakura stuttered, as tears began to slowly well up in her eyes, "Your lives sound so horrible... mine must be a piece of cake in comparison." She wiped her eyes with an arm, "But I'm here for anyone of you. Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun... Naruto, maybe I'm not worthy to be a ninja but I want to be a worthy friend to all of you."

"Don't talk nonsense, Sakura." Naruto's head snapped up, causing Sakura to hesitate as she went to rub her eyes. "Of course you'll be a worthy ninja!"

Sakura could only watch in amazement as Sasuke and Kakashi both nodded slightly, the young girl's eyes filling with even more tears as Naruto continued. "You're smart, you've got a strong will and you always know what to say."

"T-thanks," Sakura sniffed slightly. "I guess you're the one I should apologise to the most, I've been a horrible teammate and an even worse friend for the past few years."

"Don't worry about it, now let's get back to learning these jutsu. We're gonna be the most kick-ass team in Konoha in a few weeks!" Naruto threw a fist up in the air in celebration.

"Hang on," Sasuke held up a hand for emphasis. "About what Kakashi-sensei was saying... I want to know more about your team."

"Well," Kakashi sighed before figuring it would be best to let out what he had been holding in for so long. "We weren't just your regular Genin team, I for one was a Chunin when I joined. Rin, the girl I was talking about, she was pretty strong for a Genin and really hot-headed too. Obito, who would later become my best friend, and I never really got along till the very end. I was strong, he was weak. I was quiet, he was loud. I lived by the rule book, he lived to break them."

"Sounds suspiciously li-" Kakashi shot a look at Sakura, cutting her off.

"I know, I know. But what happened in the end was, long story short, during the last battle we fought as a full team I damaged my eye. Obito's dying gift to me was his Sharingan..."

"Hmph... so that's where you got it from," Sasuke said indifferently as he crossed his arms, although it wasn't hard to hear the approving tone in the Uchiha's voice. His eye shifted towards Naruto momentarily and he wondered if he ever found himself in such a situation would he be willing to pass on his legacy to the blonde. Such thoughts were pushed to the side as Kakashi continued.

"So things crumbled afterwards. Believe it or not, we started off as Team 7 as well but after Obito's death we dismantled. It wasn't too long later that Rin passed away on the battlefield and I don't particularly feel like going into details about how that happened. So that's my life story kids, I hope you learn from it," said Kakashi, his former emotionless tone returning as he opened up his book again.

"Wait... this sensei you were talking about, you said that he sacrificed himself for thousands of other people without hesitating. Who was he?" Sasuke said, not quite satisfied.

"Yeah, if he did something that big I'm sure he'd be plastered all over the textbooks!" added Sakura.

"Oh but he is," Kakashi chuckled as he covered up his Sharingan eye once more. "His name was... Minato Namikaze."

…

The second proctor of the exam wasn't quite sure how she had gotten roped into babysitting the latest victim of her former sensei's seal but now found herself in somewhat of a predicament. While Kurenai had gone to explain to her other two students that Hinata had not fully been in control of her actions, Anko had been given the task of telling the Hyuga that there would be times when worse things could occur if Hinata wasn't able to keep control of her emotions.

Having lived with the cursed seal for sometime, Anko was well aware of what it could and would do to a person. She knew it was a horrible thing, something equivalent to a mark which branded you as having been corrupted with something from the lowest circle of hell and while that description wasn't exactly inaccurate, it wasn't that bad a thing _if_ you could control it. Frankly, Anko still couldn't nor did she ever plan to. To harness the power of such a dark and twisted man's gift wasn't just asking for trouble, it also meant that you had no respect for your own power. Your own ability to train, your own ability to become strong... it had been years since Anko had willingly tapped into the seal's power.

The ways in which it twisted you made death a better fate. And Anko was fairly certain that if it ever came to a choice between death and letting the seal consume her, she would choose the former option. It wasn't that it wasn't honourable, they were ninja so naturally nothing was dishonourable, rather that it was dangerous... and scary. It literally turned you into a monster, physically and mentally.

Thus the dilemma was how she went about telling this petite young girl that her ninja career as she knew it was going to be completely rewritten. Sighing, Anko looked at the girl almost-motionless form, her lilac eyes still wide with horror.

"Kid, you know staring at your legs all day's not going to do much good to anyone," said Anko breaking the silence. If she had been hoping for a response however she wasn't met with one as Hinata continued to avoid the gaze of the higher ranked shinobi. A slight scowl crossed Anko's face as she figured that she'd need to try a different tact with the young girl. Moving from her position, Anko closed the gap between the two of them and knelt down by her side, placing a comforting hand on Hinata's shoulder. "Look, what happened today was a mistake and like all mistakes you learn from it and move on."

"But...but what if it happens again," said Hinata in a petite voice.

"The seal that the Hokage put on you is a prevention seal, meaning that it will do it's best to prevent you from unwillingly tapping into that bitemark Orochimaru gave you," explained Anko. "There's no way to shut it off completely, every so often it will try to seep in and it will take effect like a drug. Every time you have some you'll want more and trying to fight without it is almost harder than not tapping into the energy source. No matter what though, if you can avoid it, never willingly use that power."

"Yes," said Hinata meekly, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"If it starts acting up, the only person who can make it stop is yourself," stated Anko. "From what I've been told it was having an effect on you last night and since you didn't know how to stop it, it managed to get a grip on you, hence why you wanted to 'spar' with your teammates. That is only the beginning though unless you can prevent yourself from using it. Nobody can help you fight it so you have to be strong. Your willpower is what keeps that evil seal in place, if your will falters then once more you'll find yourself under the curse that seal brings."

"I understand," said Hinata still not willing to make eye contact.

"Good," said Anko as she got to her feet. "Now, I've got to get me so-"

Anko suddenly stopped talking, looking curiously as the timid girl... something wasn't right. "Kid, you know if something's bothering you, now's probably the best time to let it out."

"It's nothing," murmured Hinata, looking to the ground in an attempt to brush Anko's words away.

"Look, I know you didn't ask for this... believe me, I didn't ask for the bastard to try and give me a love bite either, but you've got to keep your head held high. There was a nine in ten chance that you would die when he branded you with the seal and you survived, but that's still only half the battle. You've gotta be strong, people will make fun of you and avoid you like the plague because of the seal, but don't give in or you're letting Orochimaru win." Anko massaged her temples gently, she hadn't asked to be giving inspirational speeches to a young girl that had the personality of a mouse. Silently she prayed that there weren't any recording devices in the room otherwise her reputation would be at stake.

"Okay," Hinata nodded slightly. Normally the words that Anko had said would've reminded her of a certain blond boy who liked to keep his head held high, but something entirely different was bothering her at the moment.

"Okay?" repeated Anko, having none of it. "You know, the two of us are kinda unique... no-one else in all of Konoha has ever been in such a predicament, even if it's not a good one. That means I've got a responsibility to make sure that you, as someone who'll go through similar things to what only I have been through, are alright. Now are you going to tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to resort to my own methods?"

"It's just... I'm not sure... how my family is going to react to this."

…

"M-Minato N-Namikaze?" trembled Sakura in awe, "_the_ Minato Namikaze?"

"Last I checked there was only one but then again with all the people in Konoha, you never know," Kakashi casually flipped another page of his book.

"You can't be serious..." Naruto's mouth was agape from surprise and for once, Sasuke's full attention was on the masked teacher in front of him.

"What, you thought I got this strong by reading books?" Kakashi asked humorously as he gestured towards the book in his hand.

"Something like that," Sasuke spoke up. "I assumed you were born into a strong family or something, but if you had the _Yondaime_ as your teacher that about explains everything."

"I was born into a strong family," corrected Kakashi as if he had just uttered the most common statement in the world. "My father was probably just a little below on-par with the Sannin when he was alive."

"Your father?" asked Naruto, his eyes shimmering with curiosity while Sakura's eyes widened slightly; the pink-haired girl rapidly starting to put two and two together.

"... I might as well write an autobiography at this point," sighed Kakashi. "Sakumo Hatake, he was the-"

"White Fang of Konoha," Sakura cut him off, remembering the numerous lessons they had had on famous Konoha ninja. "So I guess that means you can only really get as strong as you if you've got an amazing teacher and have a strong genetic ninja history." Her face lowered into a small frown.

"Not necessarily," answered Kakashi. "You need to understand that people who come from strong families are often _strong_ because they work hard and keep attempting to be strong so that they can impress their clan, aside from bloodlines there's not that much of a difference if you come from the street or if you are a direct descendant of the Sage of Six Paths."

"Yeah, I don't even know my parents but that's not going to stop me from being the Leaf's best Hokage!" Naruto threw up an enthusiastic fist.

"Then you've also got to consider the fact that I'm not even that strong in comparison to others. As much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm far from the strongest ninja to live." Kakashi made sure to make eye-contact with the three of them, "Then you also need to consider that the Yondaime wasn't the world's best teacher. Though he was an incredible ninja, the strongest one I have ever come across, that does not always make for the best teacher material."

"You're not the best teacher either," Sasuke countered bluntly.

"I know," Kakashi admitted. "But considering that we're all alive today, I reckon we've done all-"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto waved a hand around in annoyance. "Tell us more about the Yondaime!"

"Was he really as handsome as they say he was?" Sakura asked as she squeezed her hands together.

"He did have women lining up for him but he was far from a ladies man," Kakashi chuckled slightly, lost in fond recollection.

"Whatever," Naruto said, impatiently trying to get his own answers. "Did he teach you any of his kick-ass jutsu?"

"Plenty," said Kakashi in a relaxed tone.

"And I don't suppose you intend to teach us any of those?" Sasuke eyes glimmered slightly, playful-but-useless elemental Jutsu was all good and everything but it was a joke next to something like the techniques of the Yondaime.

"Nope," Kakashi said, all too happily.

"That's not fair Kakashi-sensei!" whined Naruto, "How are we ever going to be a badass team if you don't teach us badass jutsu?"

"Well Naruto, maybe if you managed to learn those elemental Jutsu I so kindly gave you, you words would have some more merit," said Kakashi flatly, figuring it was the only way to get the blond boy to stay quiet.

"Gahh... fine, I'll learn the stupid jutsu first," Naruto grit his teeth in frustration before sighing a little. The Yondaime had been his hero since he was a little kid and this was the perfect opportunity to get a little more insight into what the man was like and perhaps... what made the Hokage choose him on that fateful night. "So was the Fourth nice?" Well, he had to start somewhere.

"He was so nice that up until he was Hokage, he didn't live in a house. Despite having the large amounts of currency to buy almost any large estate, he donated a lot of that and his earnings from being a ninja towards charity," Kakashi informed his students, hoping that the raven-haired one in particular would take something away from it.

While he could've sworn he heard Sasuke scoff, his attention was turned to Sakura as she asked a question. "What kinds of charity, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Orphans and street rats mainly," answered Kakashi. "He himself was an orphan, I can't remember if he had any known family, but he saw kids without families as apart of his own. Minato-sensei was always strange like that..."

"Where did he live then?" questioned Naruto, "I mean where else could you live, if you're not living in a house."

Kakashi merely chuckled, "I'd have expected you to know Naruto. After all, you do live in an apartment too."

The blond boy instantly reddened a little while inwardly he thinking how cool it was that he shared the same type of accommodation as the hero. As he was about to respond, a single black figure dropped down from the treetops above in a blur.

While Naruto had seen the masked guys around before, he was somewhat curious to know what one was doing spying on them. However, the porcelain-mask wearing man spoke before he got a chance to raise his concerns.

"It's nice to see that your students have good reflexes," the ANBU complemented. "However, I come regarding a summons... the Hokage requires the immediate presence of Team 7 for a mission." And with a swirl of leaves, the man vanished, leaving Naruto staring at a somewhat amused Sasuke who looked as though he had been dozing off.

…

"Your objective is to retrieve a certain white haired man," Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe. "It's likely that he'll either be hanging around brothels or casinos."

"Sounds like a bum," commented Sakura, a tone of disgust to her voice.

"It doesn't matter," reassured Sarutobi. "His last whereabouts were a village towards the south-west of Konoha, about halfway from here and the southern border. The exact details are in your mission's scroll, but as I'm sure Kakashi will inform you, don't expect him to only be in one place."

"And why are we going all that way to go get some old man?" Naruto asked, "The last old guy we met on a mission was a drunk who was being targeted by a guy with a freakin' massive sword."

"I assure you, that this mission has almost a zero-risk factor," Sarutobi smiled warmly. "Unfortunately it won't be nearly adventurous as your last one, as the hard part will be tracking down the man."

"Does he have any specific quirks or personality traits?" asked Sakura.

"Like I said, you're most likely to find him in a brothel, I think that should be enough information," said Sarutobi. "If possible I'd appreciate it if you can get him back here within two days but knowing how difficult he is to track down getting him here as soon as you can will be just fine."

"Don't worry Ji-chan, we'll find this old guy for you no problem," declared Naruto.

"We will return as soon as we can," said Kakashi as he lead Team Seven out of the hall. Once out of the prying ears of other shinobi, Naruto couldn't help but curse out loud.

"Shit, I thought we were going to be training nonstop," he complained.

"That's what I had hoped for, but clearly something's come up if the Hokage issued us with this mission," said Kakashi as he read the fine details on the scroll, memorising the smallest details. "I want the three of you to meet at the front gate with an hour with a light pack. Hopefully we'll be seeing the walls of Konoha again in three days max."

"Yes sensei," they chorused as one before the three Genin rushed off.

A small smile crept across Kakashi's masked face. When he had first met his team all those months ago he seriously doubted that they would have progressed this far so soon. His confidence in them was so great that he would let them fight it out for him in the next challenge between him and Gai... either that or he would simply use them as a distraction as he escaped from the spandex wearing ninja's sight.

The joy of underlings.

…

Kiba cradled the small form of Akamaru close to his chest, the small pup resting after having received treatment for the injuries it had sustained. While he knew that Hinata had not been fully in control of her actions he couldn't help but be angry at the Hyuga heiress. To have seen his faithful companion injured in such a way hurt him deeply and he knew that he wouldn't be able to look at Hinata the same way.

It was at that moment that the door opened and Kiba found himself looking at the person he had been thinking of. Her eyes were focused on the floorboards as she tugged on her clothes. Kiba was happy that Akamaru was asleep because he wasn't sure how the pup would react to seeing Hinata so soon.

Kiba wanted to scream out at her, tell her how horrible she had been to Akamaru but after having been given the talk from Kurenai while Hinata had been talking to Anko he knew that yelling out at her would have more negative consequences. At the same time however he couldn't find it in him to say something nice or polite, not after what had happened.

Neither of them said anything and for several moments Hinata considered simply walking out without saying a word but her small amount of courage kept her in place. Raising her head, she looked Kiba in the eyes.

Kiba could see the amount of remorse written across her face, her cheeks stained where tears had fallen from her eyes. "Sorry," said Hinata before she stepped out the room and ran down the hallway away from the Inuzuka clan member, her footsteps fading every passing second.

A half moment passed as Kiba contemplated giving chase but he thought against it as he remained seated. He knew how much courage Hinata had displayed having apologised but that was only a small step and he knew better than to force anymore out of her at this time. Come morning he would have breakfast with her and try to communicate with her some more. Deep down though, he knew that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

…

"There's our destination," said Kakashi as he along with the rest of Team Seven spotted the small town located down in a small clearing underneath the hill they were standing upon. "Let's have something to eat before we have a look around town."

Placing their packs on the ground, Sakura stretched as she rubbed at her shoulder muscles. Reaching into her pack, she pulled out a small mortar and pestle and placed them on the dirt. "Whatcha doing?" asked Naruto as he spotted the equipment.

"I picked up a couple of things along the way," said Sakura as she pulled a couple of wildflowers she had plucked on the walk. "I want to extract the fluid that's located in the stem. It would be easier to slice it open and use a syringe to get it out but I didn't bring anything like that with me."

"Yet you brought that sort of equipment," muttered Sasuke under his breath as he began scavenging through his own pack for some rations.

"If I don't do this now the roots will dry up and the liquid will become useless," said Sakura as she pulled the petals off the flowers and started crushing the stems.

"So what can that stuff do?" asked Naruto as he closely observed the process.

"Well with this small amount it shouldn't do anything more than cause a slight headache but if I was to use more than it would cause hallucinations," explained Sakura. "That is provided that it wasn't diluted with anything."

"You want me to go see if I can find you some more?" offered Naruto.

"You don't have to do something like that for me," said Sakura as she briefly stopped crushing the stems. "I'm just getting the hang of the process, I don't think I'm ready to actually make a proper poison yet."

"Well what better time to find out than now," said Naruto as he put his hands into his patented seal allowing ten clones to burst into existence. "You know the drill guys, find flowers that look exactly like those ones."

"Yes boss," they chorused before they all split off in different directions.

"Sometimes it feels like that jutsu is just too convenient," said Sakura with a huff.

"I could teach it to you if you wanted," offered Naruto.

"And you'd just about kill her in the process," said Kakashi piping up. "There is a reason why the Shadow Clone Jutsu is a forbidden technique."

"You trying to get me killed Naruto-baka!" shouted Sakura.

"So why is it that I can use the technique?" asked Naruto, never really having been told how the technique worked. He recalled that it had been written on the scroll he had 'borrowed' but had bypassed that and had solely focused on perfecting the jutsu.

"The jutsu disperses the users chakra evenly amongst the clones, meaning that with one clone you halve your chakra," explained Kakashi. "If you created two clones then your chakra levels drop to a third as the two clones each take a third of your chakra. If someone like Sakura was to use the jutsu, at this time her chakra levels aren't high enough to withstand being halved and she would suffer chakra exhaustion or worse."

Sasuke took this in information in, knowing full well that he had a much higher chakra level than Sakura and therefore possibly being able to use the jutsu himself. Yet his thoughts were more on the blonde beside him, having witnessed the number of clones that Naruto was able to produce on multiple occasions. In the battle against Haku, Naruto had been able to summon at least twenty clones seemingly without it having any stress upon his body. This made the Uchiha wonder, just how much chakra did Naruto possess?

"How much chakra would you recommend someone having before attempting this jutsu?" asked Sasuke.

"I'd say that you'd be able to make a single clone quite easily," said Kakashi looking at his student. "Two would be pushing it and three would likely be your absolute max, anymore and you'd risk injuring yourself."

With a confident smirk, Sasuke put his hands in the same position that Naruto had earlier and before anybody could stop him he shouted, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The rest of Team Seven watched as a single burst of smoke appeared soon vanishing to reveal an exact clone of Sasuke. "Teme, when'd you copy that!" shouted Naruto furious that his most prominent technique had been stolen.

"Do you think that after the number of times that you have used it I wouldn't have seen it with my Sharingan at some point dobe," said the Sasuke clone.

"It wasn't as draining on my chakra as I thought it would be but I can understand the dangers behind it," said Sasuke.

"Here I was thinking you were the cautious one," mumbled Kakashi.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, when do you think I'd be able to make a Shadow Clone?" asked Sakura, her mortar and pestle having been pushed to the side momentarily.

"Leaning towards the side of caution, I'd like you to be able to stand on top of water for at least an hour, preferably two," said Kakashi.

"Two hours water walking, got it," said Sakura knowing that she could be researching some more poisons at the same time.

Before anybody else could speak there was rustling in the bushes as three of the Naruto clones returned with flowers in their hands. "We got these for you Sakura-chan," they said as one as Sakura took them from the clones.

"Thank you," said Sakura as she put them in the mortar alongside the other flowers.

"How are there two temes?" they shouted as they noticed that Sasuke had made a replica of himself. Before they could be subjected to any punishment, Naruto wisely undid the jutsu allowing the clones to poof from existence.

Time passed by as the last on the Naruto clones returned with flowers (although two of them had managed to bring the wrong kind of flowers) and Sakura finalised her poison. Emptying the contents of her mortar into a test tube, Sakura put the equipment away as Kakashi decided it was time for them to act.

"Alright you three," he said as the Genin stood in front of him. "I want the three of you to attempt this mission yourselves."

"Really!" exclaimed Naruto excitedly.

"Are you sure that's wise sensei?" asked Sakura.

"I have faith in you three, think of this as another form of training," stated Kakashi. "Your mission is to find and locate the target last seen in this town. As the Hokage said he is most likely to be drinking and womanizing so prime locations would be bars and brothels."

"But Kakashi-sensei, we're not old enough to enter those kinds of places," said Sakura, picking at the one flaw in Kakashi's _request_.

"We can if we use a henge," declared Naruto, recalling the different disguises that both he and Sasuke had used the prior day.

"An alternate to looking for him would be to make him come to you," said Kakashi. "He's a self proclaimed 'super pervert' so henge yourself into something that'll peak his interest."

"So you're saying we have to look decent and he'll come to us?" questioned Sasuke.

"Well it won't be that easy but I'm sure the three of you can come up with something," said Kakashi with an eye smile before looking out towards the horizon. "Alright, you've maybe got about fifteen minutes of sunlight to get down to that town before it gets dark. You're looking for a perverted man who's got white hair that stretches down to his waist and red lines running vertically down from his eyes. Return here by midnight with or without him."

"Does this person have a name?" asked Sakura.

"Yes," said Kakashi. "You're looking for a man named Jiraiya. Chances are that if you find him he won't want to cooperate so you may need to try and bring him back whatever way you can. Are we clear?"

"Yes sensei," they shouted before they vanished, sprinting towards the town. From his position with the bags, Kakashi silently wished his team luck before he reached into his own pack, pulling out his prized first edition copy of Icha Icha Paradise, praying that by the end of the mission an autograph would be lining the front of the book.

...

**Hope you enjoyed, please review.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Team Dragon Star does not own Naruto, this chapter was brought to you by Team Outback.**

…

"And that's about all I know of the situation," said Kurenai as she bit down on her lip nervously.

"I see," Sarutobi replied as he drummed his fingers against his wooden desk. "I suppose the most appropriate course of action would be to pull her out of the exam."

"What?" Shock overcame Kurenai's face as she heard the elder man speak.

"Yes, Orochimaru is very dangerous," said Sarutobi as he reached forward to light his pipe. Inhaling a sharp puff of smoke, he continued, "I would much rather have Hinata safe and in hospital than put her at risk out there."

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," responded Kurenai with a frown, "I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Team 8 have already successfully completed the second stage of the exam, so why pull them out now?"

"Because, the third stage is in some ways more dangerous than the second," answered Sarutobi as he sighed.

Kurenai's eyebrow tensed, a perplexed look crossing her face, "How so?" she questioned. What was more dangerous than throwing a bunch of Genin into a forest that most Jounin were weary of?

"I suppose it would do no harm to tell you, seeing as this phase is drawing to a close, but you're not to inform your team of the next stage until the rest of the Genin get to know," said Sarutobi as he gave her a somewhat serious stare. His gaze lingered for a second before lifting, "The third stage of the exam will be a one-on-one tournament, with each victor advancing to the next stage until someone wins the whole thing."

"I see," she said tonelessly. It wasn't all that different from the Chunin exams that she had attended, though she hadn't been promoted through them. She was one of the few that had received a field promotion but that did not aid her in seeing what made the whole thing so _dangerous_—tournaments weren't all that uncommon.

"It seems that you don't believe me when I say that the next stage of the exams are dangerous." It wasn't a question.

Had she been talking to someone else, Kurenai would've been surprised that her face had been read so easily, but it was something the Third Hokage did frequently. She had spent times ambling on whether or not that was because he was extremely smart or because he was a wise, old man. "It's just a tournament. Not like anything worse will happen, right?"

"You are right," mused Sarutobi, "but you are also wrong. Keep in mind that sometimes the only way to truly separate the Genin from the Chunin, the boys from men, the girls from women, is to have them fight to the death." Nothing that Sarutobi could've done would've prepared her for those last few words, as Kurenai dropped the poker-face that she had been attempting to carry as the Hokage continued. "To fight in such a situation is dangerous in itself but to fight when one is not in peak physical and mental health will severely risk their life."

"That's a month away though, surely there's something you can do to help her," pleaded Kurenai.

"I have done all that I can," said Sarutobi, a decisive tone to his voice. "It would be inappropriate for me to condone what will almost certainly be the merciless death of a defenceless Genin."

"Please give her a chance, Hokage-sama," Kurenai begged. "I can promise you that she'll be in fighting condition within a month."

"How exactly do you intend to do that, Kurenai?" asked Sarutobi, wondering how the Jonin would respond.

"I'm not sure," muttered Kurenai, "but I'll figure something out. Anko will probably be able to help me out too since she probably knows what we'll be up against."

"Hmmm," Sarutobi murmured, "your points are reasonable and should she be in an appropriate condition, I won't have any problem allowing her to participate. However, I think the person we really need talk to is her father."

"He's not going to like what we're going to tell him," said Kurenai flatly. "And I'm sure he'd attempt to remove the seal by himself. The Hyuga are known for their sealing practices."

"Which is why I have attempted to contact my old student, Jiraiya." Sarutobi exhaled a breath of smoke. "He is a well-respected seal master. After he's been retrieved by the team I have sent, I have no doubt that he will be able to deter the Hyuga from attempting anything... impure."

"Impure?" questioned Kurenai, unable to catch onto what the Hokage was hinting at.

"Politics aren't always black and white," answered Sarutobi before moving on. "I also believe that he'll be able to explain Hinata's state to Hiash_i_."

"So what do we do for now?" asked Kurenai, "Do we tell anyone? Do we say anything to the rest of my squad?"

"No," said Sarutobi, "we must keep this quiet. I believe that if we were to _announce_ what has happened today, we may fall victim to yet another one of Orochimaru's infinite ploys. However, I would recommend talking to Hinata's teammates so that they better understand what she is going through."

"Alright. Thank you, Hokage-sama," said Kurenai as she walked out of the man's office, setting out to find Anko.

…

"There's no way I'm teaching that depressed little shit!" protested Anko, twisting her head to the side as she crossed her arms.

"Anko, come on," sighed Kurenai as she leaned back against a wall. "How else are we going to get her ready for the Chunin exams?"

"There's no 'we' in this," answered Anko, still refusing to look at Kurenai. "She's too whiny and quiet. Never would've imagined that the bastard would start giving hickeys to the silent type."

"Now's not the the time for jokes," scowled Kurenai. "If we don't help her, then almost everything around her is going to rapidly fall apart. How's she going to understand what has happened to her without you?"

"She's not," snorted Anko as she waved a hand dismissively, ignoring the chatter of the few individuals in the Jounin lounge. "Let her figure it out like I did."

"A-Anko," Kurenai bit her lip in frustration. "Stop being so unreasonable and come with me to have a chat with her."

"Fine..." muttered Anko before chiming up as she finally turned her head to look at the Jounin, "but only if you ask nicely!"

The Genjutsu master bit harder, "Anko, please come with me to have a chat with her."

"See, that wasn't so hard," said Anko playfully before adopting a more serious tone. "And it's already been done, had a talk with her when you stuck me on babysitting duty."

Kurenai's eyes widened slightly, "Thank yo-"

"If you really wanted to thank me, you'd treat me to some dango later," grinned Anko, knowing that the adept Genjutsu would be unable to deny her request this time.

The Jounin-sensei nodded slightly before continuing, "Okay, sure, but what was Hinata's state of mind during the talk?"

"Quiet and withdrawn, but I'd assume she's almost always like that just by the way she dresses," answered Anko. "I don't think she really understood what was happening, but she was extremely worried about how her family would react to the news."

"I had a chat with the Sandaime about that," said Kurenai. "He mentioned that he's got a team tracking down one of his old students to come and explain to Hinata's family what has happened."

"Pfft, good luck," scoffed Anko. "There's only one student that the Hokage would call for this situation and unless he's sent his best tracking team they have no chance of finding him."

"I'm sure the Hokage's sent the very best team that he could," said Kurenai reassuringly. For such a serious situation she was certain that Sarutobi would spare nothing when it came to selecting an appropriate team. There was even a chance they had already found this person and were already on their way back.

...

"Where is he!" exclaimed Naruto. The sun had long since set and the town had practically come to life with the night crowd. Despite that, they'd had very little success in finding the one person they were searching for.

"I think it's pretty clear that he's not out here on the street," said Sasuke, fed up with his teammates whining. "We need to think of something else."

"Well it's not like we can go into every club and ask if a white haired pervert's been there," said Naruto in a huff.

"If he's already in one place, there's a good chance that he's not going to be moving out of it," said Sakura. "But if we went into club after club he might catch wind on what we are doing. Chances are that some of these clubs are interconnected somehow."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"Well imagine that one customer's hassling other patrons. You'd think they'd have some way of informing other places to keep that person out," explained Sakura.

"And with our headbands it's pretty easy for us to be identified," added Sasuke. "Doesn't really matter though if we keep switching henges."

"Actually that may even make it worse," said Sakura. "That would mean that instead of one person looking for him there'd be a group and hence he'd almost vanish even quicker."

"So we need someway to draw him out into the open," said Naruto, as he got into a thinking position. Several ideas started to brew but none of which he could muster with the limited supplies he had.

"Do we at least have an idea of how many clubs there are?" asked Sasuke.

"At least thirty," said Sakura, having been quick to ask several locals on some helpful information. "That's not including adult places however as nobody really seemed to know too much about that."

"Either that or they wouldn't tell somebody who was too young to go into them," said Naruto, knowing the feeling of having information kept from him.

"So the situation remains the same," said Sasuke. "We need some way to get one person out in the open without him really knowing that we want him to come to us."

"I got it," exclaimed Naruto, slamming a fist into his palm.

"What?" asked his two teammates urgently.

"Well Kakashi said he's not just a pervert, but a 'super pervert,'" said Naruto. "What if that means that he's got a super perverted sense?"

"I have no idea what you're going on about," said Sakura.

"What I mean is that this guy may be able to sense out pervertedness, like a bloodline of sorts," explained Naruto.

"That's ridiculous!" exclaimed Sakura, tempted to bash Naruto across the side of the head.

"It is plausible," said Sasuke. "Considering the number of bloodlines that there are, undoubtedly there are some which are completely useless or redundant."

"I can't believe you're agreeing with his stupid idea," said Sakura. "What kind of bloodline would alert you towards something perverted?"

"Well what do you think Kakashi-sensei meant by saying 'super pervert?'" asked Naruto of the pink-haired girl. Several seconds went by as she tried to construct a reasonable answer, but to no avail. She knew from some of their classes that such a bloodline had never been documented, but at the same time she couldn't help but wonder if the heirs to such an ability really wanted other people to know. Without any point to give, she sighed in defeat as she pondered just what stupid idea Naruto had in store.

"Considering this is the only theory we have, what's the plan?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, perverts are attracted to places where they can see ladies showing off their bodies," said Naruto and almost immediately Sakura covered up her private parts with her arms.

"Like hell I'm doing that Naruto!" she screamed, earning a few questionable looks from nearby civilians

"Not alone," said Naruto cheekily. "A girl standing out in the open completely nude isn't sexy. In fact, people will be rushing forward to cover you up. We need something that'll get people's jaws dropping to the ground but at the same time not insult people by taking it too far."

"So you're suggesting something that one of us should henge into a female and kiss Sakura," stated Sasuke, reading between the lines, to which the pink-haired girl in question immediately jumped into the fray.

"Let's do it, Sasuke," she said, boldly clenching her fist.

"You'll need to use a henge as well, Sakura," said Naruto. "If Sasuke turns into an eighteen year old woman who's kissing a thirteen year old it's going to be wrong on so many different levels."

"You're not going to say that you should be the one kissing her?" asked Sasuke.

"If this wasn't a mission, definitely," said Naruto, looking towards his school crush. "While I could probably act everything out until the kiss, I don't think I'd be able to keep in character after that."

"Naruto," started Sakura, placing her hand on the blonde's shoulder, "Thank you."

"Y-You're welcome?" replied Naruto, unsure of why the pink-haired girl seemed so appreciative.

"C'mon, let's get this over with," said Sasuke, mostly wanting to get this over and done with so that the three of them could resume their search. He moved across to a nearby alleyway where he could make the henge without being seen and Sakura did the same down a different alleyway.

She knew it was for the mission but she couldn't help but feel giddy. Sasuke wouldn't have the face of himself, but she wouldn't be wearing her own either so technically they would still be sharing a kiss. Finding that she was out of sight, Sakura quickly performed the henge and turned into an older version of herself in her late teens. As an extra touch she had changed her hair colour and style to look more like Ino's, figuring that if this person was already on to them having the same unique hair colour would be too obvious.

Walking back out into the street, Sakura saw that Naruto had vanished. Undoubtedly the blonde had gone to higher ground to watch out for their target without being seen. Turning towards the adjacent alleyway, she quickly spotted the henged form of what she figured was Sasuke. His female form stood at the same height as her and kept his trademark short black hair. Walking towards one another, they met in the middle of the crowded street and stood in silence for a few seconds.

"C'mon, let's get this over with," said Sasuke in his feminine voice, becoming more and more unhappy with this scenario with every passing second. Leaning forward, his lips gently caressed Sakura's, the female genin too stunned to truly react.

Here she was in her dream moment as Sasuke robbed her of her first kiss. A few seconds passed before the kiss was broken, Sasuke drawing back and looking around to find that nothing had happened. It seemed that their target hadn't fallen for the bait.

Sakura finally broke out of her stupor as Sasuke looked around, her lips still tingling with the initial sensation.

And she wanted more.

Grasping Sasuke's cheeks, she pulled the Uchiha in as her lips slammed against her teammates, this time forcing the black haired teen into a momentary stupor. Before he could react Sakura's tongue drove forward, quickly invading the inside of his mouth. For a moment Sasuke attempted to struggle before giving up, Sakura wasn't sure either this was because of enjoyment or for pursuing the mission, but she didn't care as she relished at this opportunity many of her peers had dreamt of.

Sakura's hand dropped away from Sasuke's face and slowly dived towards his ass where she quickly gave his behind a light squeeze. She didn't know what had come over her, but by no means did she want this moment to end, whether or not it attracted this pervert didn't matter anymore. Chances were that she'd never get an opportunity like this again and she would not relinquish it under any circumstances.

Except for one where she felt creepy breathing coming from a spot too close for comfort.

Breaking her contact with Sasuke, she turned her head to stare threateningly at whoever was invading their personal space, only to find a white haired man that perfectly met the descriptions they had been given. Silently she cursed Naruto, wondering how such a stupid plan had worked. That being said she would gladly reenact the same plan at any given time.

"Don't mind me, keep going," said Jiraiya as he continued to furiously scribble down several notes on a piece of paper he held in his hand. "Just pretend that I'm not here."

"Like hell!" shouted Sakura as she pulled her hand back to strike out against the pervert, but was surprised as her hand was caught with unexpected ease.

"Please, you guys have got some great material going on here and I know my readers will be highly interested in what you're producing here," pleaded Jiraiya, lowering Sakura's fist.

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen," said Sasuke, but not the one that was close to where Sakura was standing. Turning her head, Sakura found her teammate standing near the alleyway his female counterpart had walked out earlier. Focusing her attention on the person she had been making out with she feared that Naruto had been the one to steal her first kiss from her. What she wasn't expecting however was for the person to burst into smoke, revealing that it had been a Shadow Clone all along.

Whilst Naruto made his presence known to Jiraiya and Sakura, Sasuke walked slowly towards the group, not fully understanding why it was as if he could feel the warmth of what he imagined was Sakura's lips upon his own.

...

"So..." said Jiraiya, his mood dampening, "the old man wants me back in Konoha again?"

"Yeah," answered Naruto. "He said it was pretty urgent too."

"Well that's too bad," replied Jiraiya carelessly. "Because I have no intention of returning to Konoha."

"What?" shrieked Sakura, rubbing her ears slightly to confirm that they were hearing right. "Don't you understand that you've received a direct order from the Hokage?"

"Meh, you underestimate how well I know the man," Jiraiya attempted to push the topic away before pulling out a rather familiar orange book. "Now could I interest any of you young folk in buying one of my books?"

"Books?" questioned Sasuke, having dropped his henge. The Uchiha had no doubt that the only reason the pervert in front of him hadn't fled was because he was hoping that he would get to see Sakura and himself reenact the scene from before.

"How could you have not heard of my literature? Your sensei is a great fan from what I understand, surely he would have shared these treasures that I spent years handcrafting with you!" Jiraiya shook his head. "Anyway, I can guarantee you that just reading the first chapter of one of these goodies will make your life oh-so-much more enjoyable."

"By literature, do you mean the written porn that Kakashi-sensei reads?" questioned Sakura, her temper starting to flare slightly when Jiraiya offered a cheesy nod. "How could such a great ninja like you write something so... inappropriate?"

"Yeah, I could understand Kakashi-sensei reading it because he's just pretty weird," added Naruto, "but why would you bother writing something like that when you could spend all day playing pranks or something?"

"Ah, you have yet to discover the joys of teenagehood," said Jiraiya thoughtfully. "I suppose you've not learned where babies come from either, right?"

Both Sasuke and Sakura blushed deeply upon hearing this, but Naruto, having missed the lecture on 'adult' activities, merely looked on flabbergasted. "No... where do they come from?"

"That's a lesson for another time," said Kakashi as he appeared, dropping down from a roof that he had been listening in from. "So it seems that you have succeeded in securing the client."

"It was all my idea!" boasted Naruto as he stuck his chest out. "I knew his super-pervert senses would go of-"

"Baka! It was Sasuke and I who did all the work," huffed Sakura, before reddening slightly as she remembered just what the 'work' had entailed.

"Interesting," said Kakashi, before looking towards the Sannin with his lone eye. Within seconds, he had a book out and opened it at the front page as he bowed down on one knee. "May I humbly request that you bless this special edition copy of your masterpiece with an autograph?"

Jiraiya nodded appreciatively as he pulled out a pen, speaking as he signed it with a grin. "See kids, this guy knows how to appreciate a genius like me."

"Well, why don't you come back to Konoha with us?" asked Naruto, thinking of Konohamaru's teacher, Ebisu. "There are plenty of other perverts there who like your works."

"I have fans across the globe," answered Jiraiya, uncaring for Naruto's words. "It's not like there's anything special over there."

"What about the hot springs?" questioned Sasuke, realising that the only way to lure the man back to their home was to tease his libido drive. "The hot springs in the Fire Country are world renowned for their calamity."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," grunted Sakura as she sighed, understanding what Sasuke was doing. "But Konoha has plenty of hot Kunoichi who love visiting the hot springs."

"Hmm..." hummed Jiraiya, "it has been a long while since I've checked out the Kunoichi back home."

"So it's settled then?" asked Naruto hopefully.

…

Hinata balled her hand into a fist as she weakly made her way off her bed. As she stumbled onto the floor she was glad to find a steady hand by her side, supporting her as she stood up straight.

"Take it easy, Hinata," chided Kurenai. "It's alright if you miss this. You look as though you've not slept the entire night."

She hadn't. She'd been crying to herself into the wee hours of the morning, during which she had eventually managed to shut her eyes for a while. Despite that, she wouldn't call the almost-comatose state she had gone into sleep, especially since she was extremely exhausted after it.

"No... I-I want to go," she stuttered softly as she leaned on Kurenai a little. "I need to know what happened."

"What happened?" asked Kurenai, unsure of what the still-recovering girl was talking about.

"I-If that strange man got any other Genin," she explained, her voice emotionless. If not for the fact that she was having trouble forming coherent thoughts, Hinata would've taken a moment to reflect on the irony of the situation: her voice was above and beyond the cool and collected charisma her father often demanded she exude.

"He didn't," replied Kurenai, realising that awaking her student wasn't the best idea. She clearly could have done with more rest.

"I Still want to go," the Hyuga said weakly as she took her first step forwards. "I need to see Neji too..."

"Neji?" Kurenai asked almost questioningly before recalling that the boy was another contestant, Hinata's cousin interestingly enough. "He's fine."

However Kurenai soon realised that she was talking to nothing, the young heiress having waddled forwards a few steps towards the door. Grabbing the frame of it, Hinata offered a slightly chilling smile, which Kurenai immediately realised was unlike her. "You coming?" the girl questioned as she grit her teeth, grunting slightly as a wave of pain washed through her body.

Briskly walking forward, Kurenai sighed as she offered her arm to the girl for support again. Though the pale-skinned girl didn't take it, she nodded appreciatively as she leaned against the wall, slowly trodding forwards.

"Hinata," said Kurenai to no avail as the girl ignored her. "Hinata, you're going the wrong way."

The girl slowly spun around, a slightly flustered look upon her face as she leant on Kurenai's side for support once more while the two made their way towards the lobby where all the contestants were gathering.

Moments later as she stepped into the room, she was greeted by a familiar smile. "Ah Hinata, it's good to see you on your feet again!" exclaimed Lee.

"T-Thank you," she said softly as she looked around the room. There were people that she remembered from the first exam and thankfully all of the other rookie Genin from Konoha, save for Team 7, amongst the few other random teams she couldn't quite recognise. Her lazy irises cycled through the various familiar faces, a sense of dread growing in her stomach as she failed to spot Neji.

Though she didn't expect her cousin to even really respond when he saw her, Neji had been emotionless like that for as long as she could remember. A part of her couldn't help but feel as though she owed him something. Something for at least trying to protect her.

The fact that he had failed in doing so was enough to make Hinata realise that he hadn't cared about what 'fate demanded' during that moment in time. Neji would never admit it, but he had been _hoping_ to save her, Hinata had no doubt about that, and he had pushed himself to new parameters in his attempt.

"Kurenai-sensei..." muttered Hinata, her vocal chords nowhere near as clear as her mind. "I can't see Neji."

"Hmmm..." Kurenai took a glance around the room herself, having a significant advantage in height. "I can't seem to see him anywhere either, but I wou-"

"You happen to be looking for my ever youthful rival, would you?" questioned Lee, a blinding smile upon his face.

Hinata merely stared on in confusion, unable to decipher the words of Gai's student, however a gentle squeeze of her hand from Kurenai prompted her to nod with a jolt. "Y-yes, have you seen him?"

"He's talking to Gai-sensei," Lee gestured towards a corner where Hinata could just barely recognise the tall and green form of Gai, several other ninja in the way.

With a mutter of thanks, she met Kurenai's sparkling red eyes with a mutual nod before bravely letting go of her teacher's hand and making her way to where she had spotted Gai. Though it was still certainly there, the sense of dread in her stomach, but it was slowly starting to diminish.

"Hey, Hinata!" yet another voice yelled out, causing the Hyuga to snap her head up to its source with curiosity. "I was thinking that maybe one of the monsters in the forests had eaten you up."

"Only a blonde like you would think of something that stupid," muttered Shikamaru as he earned a glare from Ino.

"N-no," laughed Hinata awkwardly. "I was just out for a bit..."

"Out?" asked Choji with curiosity. "Did one of the other teams manage to get to you?"

"Heh I knew these exams were no place for little girls," boasted Ino as she noticed the perturbed look on Hinata's face. "I mean Sakura got kicked out in the first stage."

"That was unfortunate," chipped in Choji as he too saw the disgruntled look on the Hyuga's face. "But hey, I'm sure that they're doing fine now."

"It's too troublesome to worry about any of that," sighed Shikamaru as he ran a hand through his hair. "Besides, we're only rookies, it's a miracle that we all got through that entrance door anyway."

"Y-Yeah," said Hinata, more preoccupied with finding Neji's figure.

"You okay?" questioned Ino as she noticed that Hinata looked a shade or two paler than normal, something that should've been hard to pick up on, given the girl's almost-creamy skin tone. "You don't look so hot."

"Uhh, just tired."

"From what?" queried Ino, "I saw Kiba all relaxed when we came here, and we were like one of the first groups to make it."

Hinata stiffened a little at the mention of her teammate, the altercation the two had had recently was still as clear in her mind as the initial pain she'd had from the seal now on her neck. Thankfully, Shikamaru's lazy self stepped in to save her the pain of having to reveal something that she still hadn't come to terms with. "Meh, who cares? Stop being so bothersome Ino," said the Nara, "Now let's go find Asuma-sensei and hope we can get out of here quicker."

"Sheesh, who put bees in your underpants, Shika?" asked Ino sarcastically as she followed the tactical-prodigy away.

"See ya, Hinata!" waved Choji as he pulled out a packet of chips from seemingly nowhere and followed his teammates, leaving a rather confused Hyuga in his wake.

Attempting to shake the strange confrontation off, Hinata continued to proceed further towards where Lee had said Neji was, her heart skipping a beat when she failed to find Gai's barely visible form. As she navigated her way through the slightly crowded room, she couldn't help but stare in amazement as she realised that there were a mere fraction of the Genin that had been present in the prelude to the first exam with her in the room. Despite that there were just enough people–Genin, Jounin-sensei, random assistants and the like–to make getting to the corner that she was headed for a pain.

Managing to reach it at last, her lips fell apart slightly in shock as she saw the heavily bandaged form of Neji causally talking to Gai. Despite the weakness that her own body had been feeling, the feeling of dread which began to skyrocket when she laid eyes on her cousin, and the several obstacles still in her way, she promptly skipped over to them. She cursed absentmindedly as she realised that she did not have any of her medicinal cream on her. It was a shame... it looked as though he hadn't changed those bandages in the last few days.

Amidst all her worry, Hinata had no time to pay attention to her two other teammates, who merely looked on in surprise as she buzzed past them . It sounded mean, but she didn't care, she just wanted to thank Neji for being... there. After all the verbal slander that she had received from the branch-member for being too "soft" and the like, it felt so unreal to know that he had stood between a great ninja with ill intentions and her.

"Hinata?" Gai's eyes widened as he turned away from his student, "Kurenai said that you'd be out for a little longer."

"I woke up," said Hinata sheepishly as she turned her attention back to the bandaged boy in front of her. "Neji!"

The elder Hyuga slowly turned around, the mark of what could only be a sharp kunai cut visible on his left cheek.His hand had been bandaged, and by the dried blood visible on the inside of it, Hinata could tell that he had just taken it off. However her eyes were soon drawn towards the rest of his body as he dropped down onto one knee and bowed slightly. "I apologise for failing, Hinata-sama."

Hinata bit her lip, unsure of how to respond. What little hope she had that the boy had changed his view towards her was washed away by the gritty tone of his voice, it was clear that he resented every word that he was saying. Sputtering slightly, she gripped her wrists hard to make sure that it didn't turn into a sob.

"Don't be like that Neji," said Gai condescendingly. "I have no doubt that you did your best."

"Only as much as fate would allow me to," he answered bitterly as he looked towards the ground. Though there wasn't the ironic smirk Hinata almost expected, there was still a slightly proud undertone to the boy's voice, "it seems the tables of fate have flipped once more. Now, the one that escaped being sealed at the mere age of five has been branded with a much worse seal."

"Please don't mention that to anyone," said Hinata as one of her hands quickly lifted up to cover the seal in question, in case the jacket she was wearing wasn't enough.

"I shall not speak of it voluntarily," said Neji with a nod as he stood up. "However I cannot promise that I will not add my own input. Should the topic arise, of course."

"You shouldn't be so ashamed of it," advised Gai. "Don't waste your youth living in fear, instead embrace the fact that you are the person that you are and always will be that person."

"Fate has made it so," Hinata couldn't quite tell if Neji was agreeing with Gai, but she did realise that he didn't seem to agree with what he was saying.

"O-Okay," she nodded, unsure of what to say as the ground suddenly became a lot more interesting.

"So Hinata, what do you hope to achieve from these exams?" asked Gai, "The opportunity to have your flames of youth fanned in such a way is something unique to the Chunin Exams. It leaves those who still drink from the fountain of youth with a choice: to either have their flames extinguished and wait until they are rekindled, or to roar with an even greater ferocity."

"I see you're stuck between these nutcases again," laughed Tenten as she approached the trio. "Youthful flames of fate, huh?"

Hinata merely nodded, shortly making eye-contact with the bun-haired girl as Neji shot daggers at her. "T-They have good advice," she stuck up for the pair as Tenten merely shrugged.

"To each their own, I guess," said the brunette as she fiddled with a kunai. "So have you heard the rumours about what they're holding this meeting for?"

"Rumours?" questioned Hinata, having not heard anything of the sort as she had spent the last few days in isolation.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you've been in bed for a while," nodded Tenten. "Well they say that since the weird snake guy, Orochimaru, broke into the exams and screwed around with everything they're going to call them off."

"I suppose we cannot do much more than simply accept it," said Neji, curtly. "If fate has decreed the exams to end early, then it will be so. It's simply my destiny, I suppose, to remain apart of the weak branch clan."

"That's not true Neji..." said Hinata, a remorseful tone to her voice. "You don't need to suffer anymore."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand, Hinata-sama," he said coldly. "Someone who has grown up sheltered in the main house such as yourself could not understand the burden I have."

"We're not that different now, you know?" said Hinata meekly, yet her body was anything but.

"They are two different seals," said Neji as he frowned slightly. "However I suppose you do have a point."

"That's interesting," said Tenten lamely, unsure of what exactly the two were talking about. "So are we going to get back to how they decided to cancel the exams or what?"

"Actually, while I have not been inside the fiery circle of youthful gossip for many years now," said Gai, "I do know that the exams aren't being cancelled today."

"Whaddya mean?" asked Tenten, "I could've sworn Ino said she heard that, that weird Kusa chick got a message from their Kage."

"Interesting," commented Neji. "I was not aware that Kage from other nations were present."

"I think they said a few were coming," recollected Hinata, looking up to Gai as the eccentric man spoke.

"Well, why don't you find out for yourself?" asked the green-clad Jounin as he raised a finger to the centre, where a man that was clearly an official began gathering a crowd.

"Should we head over there?" asked Neji of his sensei.

"Nah," answered Tenten in Gai's stead. "They've got this voice projection Jutsu, it's cool."

"V-Voice projection?" repeated Hinata, perplexed by it as she shook her head. The weakness that she had woken up with had faded for the most bit and while she could put together coherent sentences once more, she was still far from feeling great.

"Watch."

"**Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering why you have been rounded up here,**" said the proctor in the middle of the room, someone that Hinata had not yet met. "**It is so that the second stage of the Chunin Exams can be officially ended. We are aware that the exam has ended a few days earlier than contestants had been told earlier, but understand that this is because it has been finished in record time.**"

"R-Record time?" asked Hinata questioningly as she looked to the three people standing with her.

"All the scrolls that were handed out at the start of the exam made their way back," explained Gai quickly.

"So basically a fancy way for saying that there were barely any competitors," said Tenten.

"It's to be expected," stated Neji omnisciently. "Many people dropped out during the first exam."

"**As such, you shall all get extra rest between this stage and the next. For those who are worrying about those still in the exam grounds for the second stage, they shall leak out in the next few days if they are alive. However, as all scrolls are in the proctor's possession, this means that all those who are not present here have failed.**"

"A most unfortunate circumstance," sighed Gai. "Despite the strong failure rate of the exam, I truly believed that the second stage would provide the strongest gusts of winds for your youth to combat."

"**For the third stage, contestants will participate in a one-on-one tournament****,**** more details will be explained in the next few days****.****U****nderstand that the victor will not necessarily be one of the ones promoted to Chunin rank. The third stage will take place approximately a month away, so as to give you time to train for your first opponent.**"

Though no-one immediately around her opened their mouths, Hinata could still hear almost everyone in the room burst into chatter at that.

"**Naturally, in order for you to properly do that you will have to know your opponents. Listen****,**** carefully because I'm not going to repeat this**," the man unrolled a scroll and read from it. "**We have Shino Aburame vs Kiba Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka vs Hinata Hyuga, Gaara of the Sand vs Neji Hyuga, Temari of the Sand vs Shikamaru Nara, Kankuro of the Sand vs Kin Tsuchi and Dosu Kinuta vs Zaku Abumi while Choji Akimichi receives a rest."**

...

Kakashi couldn't really believe the skill that his students had in convincing the member of the Sannin to join them on their return journey back to Konoha. More likely than not he would guess that it just came down to the ridiculous amount of luck that they seemed to have. That was also the excuse he still had for how both Sasuke and Naruto had managed to free him from Zabuza water prison back during the mission to Wave.

They had spent the night in a small inn (Jiraiya had vanished during the night but for whatever reason decided to come back and not bail on them) and had set off at first light back to Konoha. Kakashi looked around at his team and took in some of the small differences they were showing in comparison to when they had been removed from the Chūnin exam a few days earlier.

While the topic of the exams seemed to have become taboo since the removal of Team Seven, Kakashi had been informed of the situation by Sasuke and Sakura when they had found him before Naruto had entered the equation. He had taken all of this information in and almost instantly knew that one of the Chūnins who had been monitoring the exam would have sabotaged Naruto, for either hatred of Naruto or the demon inside. It wasn't quite clear but Kakashi wouldn't dwell on the moment but rather focus on the good things which had come from such an experience.

Team Seven had truly begun to bond as a team, as could be seen at this moment by Sakura and Naruto having a good hearted conversation with one another; such a thing a few weeks earlier was less likely to happen then the former Hokages rising from the dead. "Good team you got here," noted Jiraiya as he walked alongside the Copy-nin.

"They weren't like this in the beginning," mused Kakashi nostalgically.

"No team ever is," chuckled Jiraiya.

"So what made you decide to join us?" asked Kakashi. "From what I was informed of last night they bribed you with hot springs and other things which provide good source material for you, but there are hundreds of other places across the Elemental Nations where you could find such things." There was silence between the two of them as Naruto broke out into laughter nearby. Kakashi followed Jiraiya's line of sight to see that the member of the Sannin was staring directly into the back of Naruto's head. "I see," said Kakashi as he connected the dots.

"Little bit nostalgic, don't you think?" asked Jiraiya. "I imagine you have the same feeling every time you look at him."

"More than you know," said Kakashi.

"Anyways, do you know why it is that I'm being summoned back to Konoha?" asked Jiraiya, wondering why his his research time had been shortened.

"Here," said Kakashi as he pulled out an envelope that the Hokage had given him at the start of the mission. Handing it to Jiraiya, the white haired sage didn't take long in opening it and reading at the contents inside.

"I see," said Jiraiya as he read the letter his old sensei had directed to him. "So Hiashi's eldest has been given the cursed seal."

"Hiashi, isn't that the leader of the Hyuga clan?" asked Sasuke as his ears picked up on the small details.

"What's happened to Hinata!" exclaimed Naruto as he quickly put the dots together.

"She's been attacked by my former teammate," said Jiraiya as he cast a small fire jutsu and incinerated the message he had been holding. "He gave her a seal which affects her chakra and is menacing in nature."

"What kind of seal, is there anyway to remove it, is there anything we can do to help?" asked Naruto at a rapid rate.

"You of all people Naruto should know that seals are a serious business," said Jiraiya which silenced the blonde almost instantly. Sakura and Sasuke quickly shared a glance between each other, not quite sure of the message that had gone unspoken between the two of them as Jiraiya continued. "I've probably got the best knowledge of seals going around and I'm going to do my best to ensure Hinata is not subjected to the negative effects this seal has."

"That's good to hear," said Naruto relieved. "Let's hurry, we need to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible." Without another word leaving his mouth he started sprinting down the dirt road.

"Naruto!" called out Sakura as the rest of the group got left behind as the blonde created more and more distance between them.

"You two follow him," stated Kakashi to his other two students. "I'm not sure how the progress of the second exam is going but it's possible that the rest of the teams have finished. It might be beneficial in the long run to talk to them and see how they did progressing."

"Yes sensei," said both Sakura and Sasuke in synchronicity before the two of them gave chase to the third member of the team.

"I wouldn't doubt you having the best team of Genin imaginable right here," pointed out Jiraiya. "I'd be proud if they were my students."

"Well I still have a lot to teach them," replied Kakashi.

"Now that we're alone," said Jiraiya, a mischievous glint in his eye, "would you be able to answer some of my questions?"

"Such as?"

"You wouldn't happen to know the average bust size of the Konoha kunoichi would you?"

...

**Hope you enjoyed.**


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